Scam or Legit? The Browser Extension That Has Sparked Controversy

Honey. It’s a sweet treat and has some notable health benefits. However, we’re not talking about that honey today. Today, we’re talking about the Honey browser extension, which has been the topic of a lot of discussions on the internet.

What Is Honey?

Honey is just one of many different ‘browser extensions,’ which add features to your web browser to supposedly make you experience online better. There are all sorts of extensions, and basically make your browsing experience have unlimited possibilities and combinations.

This particular browser extension is owned by PayPal, after PayPal purchased it in 2019 for $4 billion. It states on its official website that it ‘searches for some of the best deals on the internet’, and it’s also free of charge. It also has a rewards scheme that cashes back points on particular websites. In other words, it can save you a lot of money when shopping online, which is why it has gained quite some popularity online, with more than 19 million users on Chrome alone. All you need to do is click the button that says ‘apply discounts’ and Honey does the rest.

And to get even more users, Honey has gotten influencers and content creators to advertise their product, not surprising considering that social media has become ever so dominant. However, what may come as a shock is that Honey got some of the world’s biggest content creators to advertise their product, including Jimmy Donaldson (more famous for his channel Mr Beast) and more. It just goes to show that the extension has won the trust of a lot of people, and is actually quite a successful product with a great reputation.

Why Honey Has Sparked Online Controversy

While some think Honey is such a bargain, other’s think it’s too good to be true, literally. A heated discussion about the Honey browser extension has taken over the internet, after a Youtube video was posted by MegaLag, exposing the extension as ‘the biggest influencer scam of all time’ based on an investigation that apparently has been going on for multiple years.

MegaLag states in the video that the extension has scammed the money of the influencers, yes, the very money of the influencers that promoted the extension in the first place. Yet almost no one has noticed the problem, until now.

According to MegaLag and his research, what goes on after you add the Honey extension to your browser is quite shady, and clearly Honey doesn’t want anyone discovering this. To understand how Honey allegedly managed to scam tons of money from influencers, we have to start from the influencers themselves, and how they earn money.

The Business of Affiliate Links

There are many ways that content creators can earn money, however, their main source of income is through something called ‘affiliate links.’ When you decide to buy something that is promoted in an influencer’s video by clicking on the link below, the influencer earns a commission from your purchase. But the interesting question is, how does the company know which influencer to give the commission to? Well, affiliate links aren’t just any URL, they are all unique URLs provided by the company to their affiliates specifically for tracking purposes. It’s this unique mechanism that makes sure that the influencer gets their fair share, and companies also sometimes use affiliate links for market analysis.

If that was a bit hard to understand, you could think of affiliate links as you going to a department store. A salesperson convinces you to buy a particular product, and hands you a reference card with their name on it as you go to checkout. With the reference card, the clerk can know which salesperson to award the commission to, and everyone is happy. Affiliate links are basically the online version of that.

How Honey Exploited This Process

According to MegaLag, Honey targets these affiliate links and their tracking mechanism. Remember that all you need to do to invoke the Honey extension is by clicking ‘apply discounts’? Well, MegaLag says that there is much more to that click then you probably realize.

Scenario 1

Indeed, when you click on ‘apply discounts’, Honey does try and save you money. But it also sneakily replaces the affiliate link of the influencer with that of their own, so that the commission doesn’t go to the influencer that actually promoted the sale, but Honey. And to further trick the website into thinking that Honey promoted the product, they also open a small referral tab, which automatically closes after the purchase has been completed.

This entire sneaky process relies on an important part of the affiliate link market, last click attribution, which is just a fancy way of saying ‘last click wins’. You may have decided to buy a computer after seeing a video doing a review on it, and open their affiliate link. However, you decide not to buy it and close the link. But you change your mind and decide to buy it anyway after watching another video promoting the same thing. So which affiliate should get the commission? Although the first video indeed initially referred you to buying the product, it was the second video that you last clicked on, so the commission goes to the second video’s creator.

Scenario 2

In addition to stealing the commission by offering you the option to ‘apply discounts’, there’s also another way that Honey secures the last click. When they don’t have anything to offer, they still give you a pop-up, with the option to use something called PayPal Rewards (or Honey Gold). This payback scheme is implemented on some sites. By clicking the confirmation button, you essentially agree to Honey stealing the commission, and Honey in turn gives you some points that can be exchanged for money.

Scenario 3

When Honey is out of luck and can’t offer you coupons or PayPal Rewards, it still pops up. This time, it just says that they found nothing. And as this can be quite unhelpful or annoying, you would really want to click ‘got it.’ By doing this, Honey essentially did nothing but still getting the commission.

What MegaLag Says About This

While some believe it can be shady business practices, MegaLag is calling out the Honey extension as an outright fraud, as there is no fair way that content creators from bloggers to Youtubers can compete with Honey for this last click.

Conclusion

So what do you think? There are mainly two groups of individuals who are being impacted by the Honey browser extension here, the consumers who use Honey, and the influencers (with some even promoting Honey). Do you agree with MegaLag that Honey is a scam? Or do you think that it isn’t that bad, and it actually legit? No matter who you agree with, we can all agree that people should use the internet responsibly and safely. Everyone should be cautious when using such extensions, as some have been known to secretly collect users’ data such as their browsing history, website activity, etc, which makes you vulnerable to data brokers and others who may have your personal information.

Finally, I would want to thank you for reading this article. I hope you can support my work by subscribing if you haven’t already, and share this article with others to spread more awareness. And don’t worry, because the subscribe and share button aren’t affiliate links.