🖕 Fuck PayPal

And fuck Linus Tech Tips for intentionally keeping quiet about this after they found out.

    • HiddenLayer555@lemmy.mlOP
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      20 hours ago

      They’re one of the largest tech media companies and deliberately chose to sweep this under the rug instead of reporting on it. Then they took sponsorships from Karma, which is a competitor to Honey that does the exact same thing.

      • Jin@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        No, they are not one of largest tech media companies They have less than what 100 employees. Maybe you used the wrong term?

        When did they learn about it? Where your proof?

        • It’s the holidays and a lot of content of made awhile, I don’t expect them to make dedicated statement.
    • nek0d3r@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      11 minutes ago

      Agreed. I remember enjoying their workshop videos a long time ago, but they can’t even be trusted for PC building info, much less anything else.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    1 day ago

    Can we make a version of this add-on that replaces the links with a choice of charity links?

    Might as well do some good in the chaos of the internet.

  • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I don’t really wanna watch a video… but how do you “steal” affiliate links or coupon codes?

    If you are doing affiliate marketing for a company and they give you a coupon code for 10% off called GET10OFF and that code gets used, the affiliate marketer gets the sale no matter where they got that code from?

    • Googlyman64@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      He says that when you click on an affiliate link, a cookie gets stored on your browser that lasts for 30 days, saying that the source should get the commission for your purchase. Honey has a popup in checkout, even when there are no codes, with a big “Got It” button to close the popup. Clicking the Got It button replaces the old cookie with a Honey cookie, giving the commission from your purchase to them instead of your source.

    • kofe@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I’ve slept since I watched and am not great with tech, but iirc the link with the affiliate code when clicked takes you to the site. Then honey has a pop up that, when clicked, replaces the link with their own, swiping the commission. Hope that makes sense - most people likely would not catch it. The Linus tech tips was used as an example of even a tech channel with lots of employees taking quite a while to notice themselves, and even when they did, it wasn’t quite conclusive for some reason?

      Another thing the video touched on is that honey would claim to search for coupons but often opt to show what the partnered companies want. So, could be there’s a coupon for 50% but they only show 10%.

  • scarabic@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I guess most people don’t have much knowledge about affiliate link URLs and how easily they can be rewritten to shift where the commission goes. I implemented SkimLinks on a hunch of websites so I’ve seen it before. Forum owners used to get upset about anyone posting product links in their comments because they night include an affiliate code. SkimLinks adds JavaScript to every page that rewrites those codes to the forum owner’s personal account. It will even insert an affiliate code into basic Amazon links that don’t have one. Once this came out, forums went a lot easier on Amazon links.

    After seeing all this, the second I spot a browser extension that wants to get between me and Amazon, I immediately assume they will rewrite all the links for their own benefit. Otherwise what’s in it for them? This news isn’t much of a surprise.

    • TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee
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      24 hours ago

      The biggest issue that this video brings up is that businesses can filter out certain coupon codes if the discount is too high

  • M1nds3nd@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Ever since it was explained that Mr. Beast only smiles with his mouth, I get skeeved out every time I see him.

  • azalty@jlai.lu
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    1 day ago

    Just open their privacy policy and done. They sell your browsing info, and you could stop it there

      • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        And Honey has always worked like this. So PayPal knew exactly what they were buying which explains the price tag. Paypal knew they were going to make their money back and then some.

    • mightyfoolish@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I never trust browser extensions outside of a select few. However, I have used Paypal quite a bit. I would think many of us have.

    • tempest@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      Was it all that surprising to you though?

      By the time honey hit the scene we had been ten years into “sketchy Browser extension that monitors your browsing habits and injects ads”

      I guess getting flogged by your favorite influencer ads a veneer of legitimacy for a lot of people.

      • dukeofdummies@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        I think what was truly surprising is that they were bought for 4 billion.That much money for… basically an out and out scam. Paypal is that sure that it’s:

        1. entirely legal

        2. Will never be stopped

        3. will return on a 4 billion investment.

        • eRac@lemmings.world
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          1 day ago

          Rakuten is up front about it. They force their affiliate links, then pay you part of their cut.

          Honey forces their affiliate links in exchange for maybe finding you a discount code.

          • gt5@lemm.ee
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            1 day ago

            I also think Rakuten compensates me fairly. I take the payout in Amex points. Instead of money they give me 1 cent per point which I can leverage to a value of around 5 cpp through transfers

  • pmc@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 day ago

    Honestly I thought all of this was common knowledge at this point, back when I used Honey (many years ago) I saw its affiliate code in the address bar and thought “huh, that’s how they make money”

    • Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      I remember researching it a while ago when I was curious how they made money. If anything else, this just illustrated glee little research and care people have with their online information.

    • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      This isn’t even remotely true. There are lots of advertisers and sponsors that aren’t scams. But unfortunately our consumer protection laws haven’t quite caught up to the digital marketplace. So there is a lot of room on the internet in general for scammy behavior.

      As always, it’s buyer beware. As well as a big amount of content creator beware as well.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      1 day ago

      I don’t mind things that are an actual thing to buy. I want to research it first–you can get a better electric razor than Manscaped for not much more–but at least it’s clear how they make their money. Honey was obviously getting money from someone other than their users, and that’s an immediate red flag.

      • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I and many other people naturally assumed that honey was getting their money from consumer data collection. Which is why I didn’t use the service myself. The surprise is the fact that the scam isn’t just consumer data collection but actually stealing commissions from content creators as well as using consumers as a gateway to stealing money from businesses that they have contracts with.

      • riodoro1@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Yeah. PayPal bought a coupon browser extension for how much? If the only thing they do is save YOU money, how come they can afford a sponsored segment in a mr beast video?

    • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      If only they had some medium to post the information, perhaps a medium that that VAST MAJORITY of their viewers use.

      “But the plans were on display…”

      “On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”

      “That’s the display department.”

      “With a flashlight.”

      “Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”

      “So had the stairs.”

      “But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”

      “Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

    • poke@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      Some very vocal people on Lemmy just love hating on LTT. I don’t think this topic was worth them making a main channel video on, I think their forum post was good and I believe they even mentioned this functionality of Honey a few times on the WAN show. It wasn’t a secret, and anyone who cared to do in-depth research on a potential sponsor could have found out.

      • tabular@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        I don’t think this topic was worth them making a main channel video on

        Their viewers getting scammed by tech they promoted isn’t worth a video on their main channel? If they could legally do it I think they should have.

        Some very vocal people on Lemmy just love hating on LTT

        LTT have made mistakes but the dunking here does seem disproportionate.

      • sardaukar@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        And yet here’s the scandal being exposed TWO YEARS LATER. Yeah, LTT couldn’t possibly have handled this better… /s

        • poke@sh.itjust.works
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          21 hours ago

          They told everyone and nobody cared, turns out people care if a YouTube video is made framing the same thing differently. Like yeah, Honey’s practice is bad for the creator industry, but is it bad enough to bring it back to the people who took their money? No, I don’t think so.I think this is more of an example of how easy it is to get the masses angry with a YouTube video than anything. It’s good that more people are going to move away from this information harvesting app, but I really feel like the reaction and hatred is overblown and, at least for the hatred towards creators, unwarranted.

          The way I see it, people still take money from predatory gambling sites, and if any creator deserves pushback, it’s them.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      1 day ago

      They didn’t hide it, but a huge portion of their audience doesn’t read the forums. A 10 minute video of Linus ranting about them would have opened this scandal to a wider audience years ago.

      • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        There may have been non-disclosure agreements between Linus tech tips and PayPal Honey. They may have threatened to sue him if he went public. I’m assuming we’ll find out the details in the next few weeks.

      • Retro_unlimited@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Linus usually likes to rant about it on the WAN show then they usually make a clip for YouTube, but weird he didn’t do that for honey, maybe he didn’t know how far the scam went.

        • zqps@sh.itjust.works
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          1 day ago

          As creator that makes some of their profits from affiliate links, I don’t see how that could be the case for him.

          Seems more likely they had a reason to avoid beef with PayPal.

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      Yeah, that not nothing but it isn’t far off. They have a massive platform. It deserved at least a video telling people about it.