Amazon Claims Honey Browser Extension is a Security Risk

[jiyeon]

Source: The Verge

 

After the recent acquisition of Honey, the money-savin', discount-searchin', coupon-findin' browser extension, Amazon has been notifying Amazon users that Honey's browser extension is a security risk and encourages Amazon users to uninstall the extension.

 

Quote

Just weeks after PayPal acquired popular coupon-finding browser extension Honey in November 2019 for $4 billion, Amazon shoppers were served a notification that the extension was a security risk. The security warning was first spotted by Politico editor Ryan Hutchins, and the timing of the message, as a Wired report points out, is suspect. Honey has been compatible with Amazon for years, so why was the retailer suddenly labeling it as malware at the height of holiday shopping season?

 

A free extension for browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, Honey scours the web for coupon codes and automatically applies them to shoppers’ orders. It also tracks prices for individual items which is especially helpful for sites like Amazon, where prices are constantly fluctuating, and multiple listings with different prices exist for the same item. So it seems especially strange that Amazon would suddenly discourage customers from using a tool that incentivizes shoppers to buy from its site.

 

 

The official warning reads as follows (or above in the quote if you wanted a visual):

Quote

Honey’s browser extension is a security risk. Honey tracks your private shopping behavior, collects data like your order history and items saved, and can read or change any of your data on any website you visit. To keep your data private and secure, uninstall this extension immediately.

 

When interviewed by The Verge, Amazon initially stated their stance on Honey, but declined to elaborate.

Quote

“Our goal is to warn customers about browser extensions that collect personal shopping data without their knowledge or consent,” an Amazon spokesperson told The Verge, but declined to comment further on why it deemed Honey a security risk and the timing behind its decision to do so.

 

Reading on from The Verge's article on the situation, the journalist Dami who wrote this article perfectly articulates a theory behind why Amazon is so against the browser extension:

Quote

With PayPal paying $4 billion in its largest acquisition ever for Honey, it’s possible that Amazon is feeling threatened by the extension being owned by a competitor in the e-commerce space. Both Amazon and PayPal compete as online payment processors, and Honey’s primary business model involves charging retailers, like Amazon, a percentage of sales made with the online coupons it finds and serves automatically to users.

 

Having recently installed Honey and finding literally zero results for it, I'm not compelled to re-install Honey any time soon. I do believe Amazon does have a point, but their point could reflect onto any browser extension, as browser extensions all track browser activity in some form.

I agree with Dami that Amazon might just be feeling the heat from PayPal now owning Honey.

[TempestCatto]

Idk how much I wanna believe this. I mean, PayPal isn't malicious nor owned by some Chinese company. I don't think they could or would have changed anything about Honey so soon after purchasing it. I've been using it a lot for the past couple of years now and haven't had anything weird or suspicious happen.

[Bitter]

It's a security risk to Amazon profits LOL

[DailyProcrastinator]

Honey should move to AWS, then they won't care lol. Also Google and Amazon literally listen to us in our homes, Honey knowing my shopping behavior is not a big scare. Pick your battles Amazon hahaha!

[lewdicrous]

Quote

Honey tracks your private shopping behavior, collects data like your order history and items saved

Hey Amazon, don't you do the same? Or is it only bad when others do it.

[8uhbbhu8]

Funny that you complain about other doing things like this Amazon yet when you do it theres nothing wrong,

[williamcll]

But doesn't Amazon track your browsing behavior long before honey?

[LeSheen]

2 hours ago, sowon said:

Having recently installed Honey and finding literally zero results for it,

It doesn't work with every webshop. I had the same experience while using it for Belgian webshops. However when shopping in American or Chinese webshops it did find some coupons.

[RejZoR]

It's funny when a company with terrible privacy practices shits on another doing the same. LMAO.

[RejZoR]

51 minutes ago, Sampsy said:

Out of interest - has honey actually saved anyone money? I've had the extension for like 2 years now and it has literally never found me a coupon to use. 

No, never. Must be some sort of American thing because I couldn't get ANY discount in any of European shops. Not even on bloody Amazon. Tried it few times and removed it coz it never saved me even a cent.

[mr moose]

regardless how true or false the claim is,  I still get a bit skeptical when a a single company has so much control over the shopping experience, they are literally automatically applying codes and tokens (from anywhere) to your shopping basket, overseeing the transaction from your bank to the seller and then hitting the seller with a fee so on and so forth.   I mean doesn't this cause others to question at what point a conflict of interest becomes a thing?

 

EDIT: which also by the way is apparently worth $4B to pay pal.   

[RejZoR]

59 minutes ago, mr moose said:

regardless how true or false the claim is,  I still get a bit skeptical when a a single company has so much control over the shopping experience, they are literally automatically applying codes and tokens (from anywhere) to your shopping basket, overseeing the transaction from your bank to the seller and then hitting the seller with a fee so on and so forth.   I mean doesn't this cause others to question at what point a conflict of interest becomes a thing?

 

EDIT: which also by the way is apparently worth $4B to pay pal.   

People don't care when it's "saving" them money. Although Honey never ever saved me even 1 cent...

 

Reason why PayPal was so interested in it is because up till now they knew what we were buying and from where. Now they'll know what people are just looking at before they actually buy. I'd say that's a huge insight into customers behavior.

[mr moose]

7 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

People don't care when it's "saving" them money. Although Honey never ever saved me even 1 cent...

 

Reason why PayPal was so interested in it is because up till now they knew what we were buying and from where. Now they'll know what people are just looking at before they actually buy. I'd say that's a huge insight into customers behavior.

 

It still raises a lot of concerns.

Now they not only control the financial transfer, but they have control over the amount of a discount applied if one is applied at all.  They could decide to not apply discounts to certain vendors depending on fee agreements, or who owns them, or any other metric unknown to us. 

[TechyBen]

5 hours ago, mr moose said:

regardless how true or false the claim is,  I still get a bit skeptical when a a single company has so much control over the shopping experience, they are literally automatically applying codes and tokens (from anywhere) to your shopping basket, overseeing the transaction from your bank to the seller and then hitting the seller with a fee so on and so forth.   I mean doesn't this cause others to question at what point a conflict of interest becomes a thing?

 

EDIT: which also by the way is apparently worth $4B to pay pal.   

Yep, pot meet kettle: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/amazon-assistant-for-chro/pbjikboenpfhbbejgkoklgkhjpfogcam?hl=en-GB

So, they buy when a competitor buys up a firm, Amazon find a small but quiet way to close them down. Colour me surprised.

 

[PHYLO]

12 hours ago, Bitter said:

It's a security risk to Amazon profits LOL

This.

[Sauron]

Well, it's true - Honey does collect that information in order to function. With that said, I don't really trust Amazon's motives given they never seemed to care with other equally intrusive extensions.

[MageTank]

13 hours ago, lewdicrous said:

Hey Amazon, don't you do the same? Or is it only bad when others do it.

This town ain't big enough for TWO data collectors. 

[lewdicrous]

1 minute ago, MageTank said:

This town ain't big enough for TWO data collectors. 

"Two?" replied Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc.

[BuckGup]

I said this years ago

[Worstcaster]

9 hours ago, RejZoR said:

No, never. Must be some sort of American thing because I couldn't get ANY discount in any of European shops. Not even on bloody Amazon. Tried it few times and removed it coz it never saved me even a cent.

I'm american and also never saved anything with honey.  Uninstalled the extension quite a while ago.

[DeScruff]

10 hours ago, Sampsy said:

Out of interest - has honey actually saved anyone money? I've had the extension for like 2 years now and it has literally never found me a coupon to use. 

uhhh sorta half? When I bought my laptop, it applied a coupon code that I was already going to apply.
 

Its not really useful for smaller purchases on Amazon... I'd say its useful if your buying more expensive things like appliances, TVs exc on the manufacturer's website (Or sites that are more likely to have coupon codes), or whatever and they have multiple coupons going on at the same time, and you are unsure which ones apply to what your buying.

[Snadzies]

10 hours ago, Sampsy said:

Out of interest - has honey actually saved anyone money? I've had the extension for like 2 years now and it has literally never found me a coupon to use. 

I'm in the US and I've never saved a single cent.

 

Bought clothing, food, car parts, office supplies and all sorted of other things from various web sites and Honey never came up with a working coupon.

[mr moose]

2 hours ago, comander said:

myactivity.google.com

It's possible to clear just about everything from Google (maybe not easily but...)
That can't be said for many others. 
 

It's scary people believe this means anything.   Once google has your data they have your data.   At best they are removing it from public view.  And even if they did remove it entirely and unlink all of the associated data, it's too late as they have sold it to others who won't.

[Bitter]

Since when did Amazon reviews start listing what country the review was posted from?

[Sakkura]

This seems like prime lawsuit material.