Honey always seemed fishy. What's the tldr on what they were actually up to?
this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2025
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They were ripping off both their users and anyone using affiliate links (including the content creators who promoted them)
During checkout, when you clicked the "find coupon" button in honey (which it prompted you to do on screen during checkout), it would strip out any affiliate link and add their own. So if you clicked on a product from a review, they would strip out the referral link from the YouTube video or website that sent you and indicate they sent you instead and get the commission.
In addition, they were working with online retailers and basically extorting them. They said that if retailers paid them a fee, they got to pick the discount code that was used during checkout. So if there was a 20% coupon and a 5% coupon, stores could pay them to ignore the 20%.
This, in turn, was basically faking out their users, thinking they were giving them the "best deal" like they claimed to.
They also apparently violated uBlocks open source license by stealing their code without credit.
Nah that is unrelated to Honey. You're thinking of Pie Adblock which is created by the same people who invented Honey before selling it to PayPal.
So if there was a 20% coupon and a 5% coupon, stores could pay them to ignore the 20%.
Now that's a completely new level of extortion
Sounds about right
it's rare to see services being advertised by YouTubers that don't seem fishy tbh
Yeah no kidding, especially VPNs. They only shill for the shady ones. Thankfully SponsorBlock is a thing. I couldn't imagine watching YouTube without it.
Its a godsend!!
Are you kidding me?
logs into RAID SHADOW LEGENDS while making another shaker bottle of GAMERSUPS and log into my EXPRESSVPN to watch NETFLIX IN OTHER COUNTRIES while I wait for it to load
The Bee Movie, but every time someone says honey we sue Honey.
I don't like how this is a big thing now. Like - whaaat, big evil co. ™️ (paypal) is evil? -
Most tech companies do evil stuff that are technically allowed although immoral, and they still bring some benefit in some way. What honey did was not only immoral, but most likely illegal, and screwed literally everyone. At least amazon and google have horrific monopolies, but they bring useful products (in some way).
one could argue that PayPal also brings useful products, but phuck companies, so no, they are just as evil, obvobv.
Paypal absolutely, but honey does not. Investigation by megalag showed that it purposefully did not give the best experience in terms of coupone codes, if any at all, and experience from users seem to confirm that honey does not try to provide any real service, only scam customers, creators and shops. Paypal as a company should be held responsible
I think we all watched that. Didn't he say in that that honey is just a PayPal thing?
They crossed the line, they affected youtubers
Not just that; they collude with webshops to purposefully not show you the best deal. Webshops which sign up can select their target discount, if any.
So, besides affiliate hijacking, it is also false advertising.
oh no, poor youtubers
I don't like its being made a big thing...