Popular Honey browser extension steals creator revenue, scams users, claims investigative video

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.

Video claims Honey scams users out of best deals and creators out of revenue

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:

1. Intentionally not providing the best deals—something that’s key to its user promise
2. and stealing revenue from creators by removing their affiliate links

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:

No official PayPal response yet on Honey controversy

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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