Informative Video About the Honey Extension

[bedes]

Fair warning: this video is a "part 1", which isn't clearly advertised in the video title, and part 2 has yet to release. However, I wanted to share it because it still contains a lot of damning evidence about how the popular extension, Honey, steals from creators, and purposefully gives their customers worse coupon codes while telling them it's the best one available, to stop them for searching for better ones. Among other things. I highly recommend giving it a watch, even if you've never had the extension installed, as it's pretty interesting to see these scummy practices in action.

It all stops being surprising once you remember Honey is owned by PayPal, though. :P

Comments

[supermario128]

I was already going, “Holy crap,” when they showed Honey/PayPal taking the affiliate link credit... but then it just kept going! So damn scummy. And then that’s not even all? Wild.

I’ve never messed with Honey before (I mostly shop offline anyhow), but this is some important info to know. Thanks for sharing.

(And also serves as yet another reminder to be incredibly skeptical of YouTuber sponsors, to be added along with the likes of BetterHelp.)

[bedes]

Yup yup! I can think of a few other common YouTube sponsorships that are super shady, but whose controversies had less buzz. For example, HelloFresh is a company which union-busts and has terrible treatment of its workers, and has allegations of child labor. There's also a controversy regarding the common sponsor DeleteMe not doing as it advertises and collecting user data, when it's promoted as a safety and privacy feature.

I wonder if there's something about YouTube sponsorships that just attracts shady, shitty companies. (Or maybe it's just that companies with enough money to advertise with tons and tons of YouTubers tend to be shady and shitty because, well, rich company.)

[supermario128]

I’d heard about the HelloFresh stuff, but yeah, definitely less buzz. Haven’t heard about DeleteMe at all—a combo of SponsorBlock plus happening to never watch a YouTuber sponsored by them, I guess.

Without actually doing any research, I’d wager it’s the nature of a company that’s gotten that rich as you say, but also the nature of sponsoring a YouTuber (or any other similar entertainer/creator).

A YouTuber, even with a behind-the-scenes team, is going to be a smaller operation, which means less people to look into these companies and figure out shady dealings plus easier to manipulate. I’d also reckon it’s more appealing for these scammier companies to work with YouTubers given YouTubers tend to feel more trustworthy to people in comparison to corps, and therefore their viewers are more likely to trust the product/service itself that they are advertising. A lot of YouTubers also tend to be on the younger side, which means less experience in weeding out bad/shady business deals.

[bedes]

Very well-said!!

[starfleetbrat]

ooh I have this on my watchlist to watch later on, it showed up in my recs and got me curious because I used Honey once or twice but it never gave me any useful coupons, so I uninstalled it. I didn't even know influencers were involved at all. Shall def give it a watch now!

[moonwife]

"But wait, it gets worse" basically.