Honey browser extension - you may want to delete it ... (1 Viewer)

[kupcho1]

Honey browser extension faces accusations of scamming and misleading influencers and users​

tl;dr: The Honey browser extension (acquired by PayPal in 2020) is cheating "influencers" out of commissions. OK, who cares? Screw "influencers", right?

Not so fast my friend. They're also screwing you.

Here's a good video from megalag on the scam.
How does Honey scam you? Honey's selling point to the user is that they do the discount code search for you and find you the best deals. They don't. One of their selling points to businesses is that they will only highlight the discounts that the business wants to accept.

Much of what they're doing would appear to be illegal (or at the very least, anticompetitive). So the extension might be nuked soon anyway. But I removed mine.

Remember, if it's free, you're the product.

 

[bonsai]

One of their selling points to businesses is that they will only highlight the discounts that the business wants to accept.

That's a shame. Is there a Honey alternative out there?

 

[kupcho1]

One of their selling points to businesses is that they will only highlight the discounts that the business wants to accept.

That's a shame. Is there a Honey alternative out there?

Yep, I think it's mentioned in the video. IIRC, a Linux forum broke the story. Could be self serving though, as the Honey-like site they're partnered with does the same damn thing.
I'll be "manually" searching for codes going forward. Google is still free, and I'm in no way, shape or form the product when I use Google. Nope. Not at all.

 

[Runkle]

One of their selling points to businesses is that they will only highlight the discounts that the business wants to accept.

That's a shame. Is there a Honey alternative out there?

I think CapitalOne has a browser extension that automatically tries discount codes when you hit the shopping cart page. Not sure what the data leak/exposure is.

 

[titusbramble]

Never heard of it

 

[Craig_MiamiFL]

Are these "influencers" the same ones that do those pump & dump crypto garbage over & over and somehow folks still fall for them?

 

[FreeBaGeL]

One of their selling points to businesses is that they will only highlight the discounts that the business wants to accept.

That's a shame. Is there a Honey alternative out there?

Retailmenot I think is the other big one.

 

[bonsai]

Yep, I think it's mentioned in the video.

What is it, for people who don't want to watch a 30-minute video?

Are these "influencers" the same ones that do those pump & dump crypto garbage over & over and somehow folks still fall for them?

Yes, e.g., The "Hawk Tuah" Girl.

 

[NutterButter]

Are these "influencers" the same ones that do those pump & dump crypto garbage over & over and somehow folks still fall for them?

People can't resist those get rich quick schemes. Same folks that are always following the latest dieting trend.

 

[Wildcat]

One of their selling points to businesses is that they will only highlight the discounts that the business wants to accept.

That's a shame. Is there a Honey alternative out there?

I think CapitalOne has a browser extension that automatically tries discount codes when you hit the shopping cart page. Not sure what the data leak/exposure is.

I use this. It works well.

 

[kupcho1]

What is it, for people who don't want to watch a 30-minute video?

I don't remember. If I did, I would have written it in the original post.

 

[Desert_Power]

One of their selling points to businesses is that they will only highlight the discounts that the business wants to accept.

That's a shame. Is there a Honey alternative out there?

So most of the tracking platforms actually work pretty well. You can go to cashbackmonitor.com and look up the store along with various cash back percentages. When it comes to the coupons themselves, I find Rakuten the best of it. Although it won't have every coupon available. Does the best job of tracking reliably in my book. AAmerican eShopping does similar but tracks less reliably.

 

[Mister CIA]

I use the Honey Badger extention, so I don't care.