By Bob Paterson A payment marked “Private” on Venmo is supposed to stay out of the public transaction feed. But four California consumers say their payment information was still sent to outside technology companies through tracking software built into the app. Their September 2026 class action accuses PayPal, Venmo’s operator, of disclosing personal identifiers, payment amounts, recipients and even transaction notes without meaningful consent. The allegations raise a larger privacy question: whether keeping a payment hidden from other Venmo users also protects its details from third-party data collection.
Who Filed the Venmo Class Action Lawsuit?
On September 1, 2026, Stacey Borquez, Remi Rundzio, Nathan Olson and Lana Nava filed Borquez et al. v. PayPal, Inc. d/b/a Venmo in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The case number is 5:26-cv-09340. The complaint runs 57 pages and requests class-action treatment on behalf of other allegedly affected users.
The defendant is PayPal, Inc., which operates Venmo. The case was reassigned to U.S. District Judge Noel Wise in early September. Filing a proposed class action does not establish that the allegations are true or that the court has certified a class.
What Information Was Allegedly Shared?
The complaint identifies mParticle and Kochava as third-party tracking companies that allegedly received information from Venmo. According to the plaintiffs, data exposed through those technologies included a sender’s name, email address and phone number, the recipient’s identity, the amount of a payment and the text entered in a transaction note.
The lawsuit also alleges that information was paired with persistent identifiers that could be used to connect activity across apps, websites or devices. A payment note might disclose why someone paid a landlord, medical provider or another person. That possibility is central to the claimed privacy harm: the information is more revealing than an anonymous record that a transfer occurred.
These are allegations about how Venmo’s software operated. The court has not determined that PayPal unlawfully transmitted any individual user’s information.
Why Do Venmo’s Privacy Settings Matter?
Venmo allows users to limit who can see their transactions within the app. The plaintiffs say PayPal nevertheless enabled third-party data collection even when users selected “Private,” while its privacy messaging gave users reason to believe their personal transaction details would not be disclosed for outside marketing purposes.
The dispute therefore concerns more than whether strangers could view a payment in Venmo’s social feed. The question is whether information entered during a private transaction was independently available to companies operating tracking tools, without adequate notice or consent.
What Laws Does the Complaint Invoke?
The proposed lawsuit invokes the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, including restrictions on certain interceptions of electronic communications, and California’s Invasion of Privacy Act. It also raises claims under California’s Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act and Unfair Competition Law.
For those claims to succeed, the plaintiffs must establish the elements of each statute, including whether the challenged data collection qualifies as unlawful interception or access and whether legally sufficient consent existed. PayPal may dispute the technology, the scope of user consent, the claimed injury or the legal applicability of those statutes. None of these issues has been resolved by a merits judgment in the records reviewed.
Who Could Be Covered by the Proposed Class?
The complaint proposes a nationwide group of Venmo users who chose the “Private” privacy setting or marked at least one transaction “Private” and whose identifying information was allegedly disclosed or accessible to third parties. The proposed definition also excludes people who already made an arbitration demand against PayPal concerning the challenged conduct.
The precise membership rules could change substantially. Venmo’s user agreement contains an arbitration provision and class-action waiver, which may become important if PayPal contests whether claims can be heard together in court. There is no certified class or approved compensation program at this stage.
Venmo Lawsuit Status as of October 2026
The federal docket confirms the September 1 complaint and shows a scheduling order issued September 3. An initial case-management conference was scheduled for December 8, 2026. A more recent docket index records additional procedural filings through October 8, including attorney-admission orders. Those entries are not rulings on the substance of the privacy allegations.
As of October 14, 2026, the available records do not establish a class-certification order, settlement, liability finding or per-user payout. Readers should not confuse this privacy case with the separate 2022 action Al-Ramahi v. PayPal, Inc., which alleged that Venmo users were not properly reimbursed for fraudulent transfers. The two lawsuits concern different conduct.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Is there a Venmo class action settlement claim form?
No settlement or claims process has been verified for the September 2026 Borquez case. A payment amount or filing deadline cannot be stated before a qualifying settlement or other award exists.
Q. Does changing an old payment to “Private” reverse information already transmitted?
Not necessarily. Changing what other users can see is different from recovering information that may already have been sent to an outside service. The lawsuit has not established which past transactions, if any, were affected.
Q. Is the lawsuit about Venmo refusing to refund scam victims?
No. This case concerns alleged disclosure of transaction data. A different lawsuit filed in 2022 addressed allegedly unreimbursed fraud losses and should not be treated as part of the same proceeding.
Q. What records would help someone understand whether they were affected?
Transaction histories, privacy-setting records and relevant communications may help document account use, but they do not by themselves show what software transmitted to third parties. Determining whose information was affected would require reliable technical evidence.