The Honey browser extension is known for finding and recommending discount codes when purchasing on websites. What wasn't known until now: Honey foists affiliate cookies on customers in almost every interaction in order to earn commission on their alternatives – even if Honey doesn't make a contribution like coupon codes.
Honey overwrites the user's cookies
Honey, a subsidiary of the payment giant Paypal, has been promoting itself for years as an extension that searches for the best discount codes for users. She is there on every website and is supposed to let you know if the user can save something.
However, the YouTuber MegaLag has now shown that Honey makes use of its users' affiliate commissions: When interacting with the browser extension, a new tab sometimes quietly opens in the background, which contains an affiliate link and is therefore affiliate in many cases. Overwrites cookies from other creators, web video producers and news sites.
Partly commission without anything in return
However, Honey not only overwrites and describes the cookies in the Honey Gold cashback program, but also when the extension does not contribute to the shopping experience.
MegaLag reports having triggered the secret affiliate cookie in the following cases:
- At the Activate vouchersregardless of whether coupons are found.
- At Honey gold A new cookie is also set, but cashback is advertised here. Another criticism here is that Honey receives at least a 5% commission, but only fractions of this are paid out.
- Even if honey Offers neither cashback nor couponsThe extension places an affiliate cookie when the user confirms the “We couldn’t find anything” popup.
In none of the cases is it apparently clear to the user whether and when an affiliate cookie is set. MegaLag also points out that other services like KarmaNow operate on a similar path.
Honey became known through influencers
However, Honey didn't just grow big with the promise of automatically curating the best coupons in the digital age. A large-scale marketing campaign over the years, which includes sponsorships with YouTubers, has also contributed to this: well-known names such as Mr. Beast, Marques Brownlee, H3H3 Productions, Linus Tech Tips, Oversimplified and many more have promoted the expansion. Mr. Beast's videos promoting Honey alone have garnered over 3 billion views.
Influencers suffer greatly
Cynically, it is precisely these applicants who are now the big victims of Honey's approach, because if Honey grabs the commission itself, YouTubers will no longer receive it.
Linus Tech Tips already drew conclusions in 2022
In at least one case, this has already led to a rift: As a team member from Linus Tech Tips (LTT) confirmed in March 2022, LTT terminated the advertising contracts with Honey after they noticed this behavior of the application.
LTT and its partner channels represent Honey's third-largest sponsorship. Based on years of collaboration, the Canadian tech channel says it wanted to get Honey to change its methodology. But the coupon checker remained unreceptive and refused to cooperate on the matter. The sponsorship fell apart.
We have a community forum where community members can raise concerns with sponsors. Once these issues with Honey have been reported to us, We have tried to work with them to remedy the situation. After a few calls, we were told they were unwilling to change, so we stopped working with them on all channels.
Linus Media Group
There are also inconsistencies with Honey discount codes
When researching, it also became apparent that Honey does not always have all current coupon codes and codes added by users are not necessarily included in the database. MegaLag then noted that there are, however, some Honey codes, i.e. coupons that are presumably negotiated between Honey and the website.
Does Honey betray his promise?
MegaLag now concludes that Honey wants to control the discounts that users use by simply not displaying higher-value coupons for the partner.
According to the FAQ, partnered websites actually have the right to determine and pay for the content (coupons) in the browser extension due to the company's fixed commission structure for that same partnership.
However, it is still unclear whether the partners exercise the right to determine content as aggressively as MegaLag portrays. The YouTuber announces further insights into Honey's approach in the future.
