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Even More Venmo Accounts Tied to Trump Officials in Signal Group Chat Left Data Public


WIRED has found four new Venmo accounts that appear to be associated with Trump officials who were in an infamous Signal chat. One made a payment with a note consisting solely of an eggplant emoji.

Mike Yeagley, a specialist in commercial data and its security risks, has spent over 15 years advising the US Department of Defense on how both allies and adversaries leverage what he calls “digital exhaust,” the seemingly mundane details—social connections, service transactions, and metadata trails—left behind in everyday apps. When these exposed Venmo accounts were set up—all before 2020—the app would display a prompt allowing users to sync their phone contacts, automatically populating their friends list with anyone in their address book already using the platform. That means that even when a user sets their account to private, their friends list remains visible unless they take an additional step.

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