Honey is a popular browser extension owned by PayPal that’s at the center of a big new controversy. As a new investigative video outlines, the extension that’s meant to save users money not only misses key discounts, but also intentionally redirects affiliate funds away from creators.
PayPal Honey is a browser extension you’ve probably heard of, if not installed and used during this holiday shopping season. It’s available on Chrome, Safari, and more and has grown popular for good reason.
Honey promises to provide the best deals and coupons for any product you purchase online, all with just a simple click—but it’s now at the center of a big controversy.
As documented in a multi-year investigative video, Honey appears to have two major issues:
Essentially, YouTube channel MegaLag explains how Honey employs a variety of tactics through which it not only scams users out of finding the best deals and actually saving money, but it also steals key affiliate revenue from creators by replacing their affiliate links with its own.
Here’s the full video:
PayPal has not yet issued a formal statement regarding the video, but many of the details exposed by MegaLag seem particularly hard to refute.
Especially because in at least one case, PayPal provided confirmation to MegaLag that the extension’s behavior was working as intended.
Unfortunately, for a browser extension that seemed to promise so much to users at so little cost, the old adage seems proven once more: if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.
What do you think of the Honey controversy? Let us know in the comments.
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Ryan got his start in journalism as an Editor at MacStories, where he worked for four years covering Apple news, writing app reviews, and more. For two years he co-hosted the Adapt podcast on Relay FM, which focused entirely on the iPad. As a result, it should come as no surprise that his favorite Apple device is the iPad Pro.
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