Online coupon app Honey is a scam and nobody should be using it

[Dakota Tebaldi]

If you watch YouTube at all you've probably seen creators pushing it, and especially if you follow "influencer" types with big channels. Honey is a browser extension that you install that keeps an eye on your internet activity and when it sees you on a cart page at any online store it will, so it claims, scan the web looking for coupon codes for the things in your cart and apply them for you if you so choose, which can save you substantial amounts of money. Originally Honey and its shills declared that it would find the best discounts available on the whole internet for you, but at some point they quietly stopped claiming that (I personally did not notice when they did, since I always tune the spiel out whenever it starts). I've always known that Honey was a data harvesting scam so I never bothered with it; but it turns out that it's far worse than that.


The short version is that Honey

1. Does not search the entire web, but only a curated database that pointedly does not feature the best available discounts. Sometimes these codes don't even work.

2. Replaces all affiliate links with its own, basically stealing any and all referrer commissions. This happens even if you choose not to use the coupons it offers, and even if it finds no coupons at all.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

What's really terrible about this is that LTT, who ran over 800 segments for Honey, knew about this since ~2 years and never bothered to tell the public.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Yeah that is so weird. They just treated it as an internal decision to stop using them. When other tech channels like JayzTwoCents or GamersNexus have discovered an ethical problem with a sponsor that's bad enough to make them end a partnership, they make a whole video about the problem.

I wonder if there was something contractual at play there, like maybe Honey's sponsorship agreement has a non-disparagement clause or something in it.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Oh hey - just so you know, if you've seen ads lately for an ad-blocking extension called Pie which supposedly not only "makes ads disappear" but also claims to somehow give you money for ads that you do watch - don't download that either, it was made by literally the same people as Honey and is every bit as shady.

 

[Essence Lumin]

In general, don't add chrome extensions on a whim, only actually need. Especially anything that says it can change any page that you browse.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

I always assumed coupons of any sort can't be trusted. At best they are an advertisement for something you don't need, masquerading as a way to save money. At worst they are cons like honey. That video was kind of scary since I think they should be in prison but I bet nothing will happen...

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

People have gone to jail for cookie/affiliate link stuffing before, I know that much. But sadly I don't know the details, so I don't know for sure how much that crime is applicable to the Honey situation. But it certainly feels like something that a government could investigate.

 

[Free]

Oh hey - just so you know, if you've seen ads lately for an ad-blocking extension called Pie which supposedly not only "makes ads disappear" but also claims to somehow give you money for ads that you do watch - don't download that either, it was made by literally the same people as Honey and is every bit as shady.

The first time I saw one of their ads, my spidey sense started tingling.

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

Google / Apple need to do better and drop this app from their store. Geez.

 

[Anya Ristow]

I always assumed coupons of any sort can't be trusted.

When I think of it I search for coupons myself, so when I saw influencers pushing honey I looked into it for about twelve seconds before concluding that there were probably downsides in exchange for little I can't do myself. And what I found searching for coupons myself is that most sites that offer discount codes put them behind some clickbait, or worse, some kind of account. And then, even if you do manage to extract a code from them, and it says it is common, recent and highly successful, it often doesn't actually work.

But a couple times...and I mean a COUPLE...I've found actual discounts.

 

[Free]