this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
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πŸ–• Fuck PayPal

And fuck Linus Tech Tips for intentionally keeping quiet about this after they found out.

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[–] azalty@jlai.lu 36 points 1 day ago

Just open their privacy policy and done. They sell your browsing info, and you could stop it there

[–] geography082@lemm.ee 49 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I'm so proud I never consumed these guys shit

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 36 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Was it all that surprising to you though?

By the time honey hit the scene we had been ten years into "sketchy Browser extension that monitors your browsing habits and injects ads"

I guess getting flogged by your favorite influencer ads a veneer of legitimacy for a lot of people.

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[–] mightyfoolish@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I never trust browser extensions outside of a select few. However, I have used Paypal quite a bit. I would think many of us have.

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[–] jagermo@feddit.org 256 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (5 children)

I said it in another post: if you see a bunch of influencers all suddenly peddling the same stuff, stay away. All of them can be bought.

[–] tdawg@lemmy.world 119 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Or, just don't trust ads period

Do your own research

[–] lars@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Do your own research is the famous last coherent phrase of the QAnon crowd. Idk what the answer is but that phrase will forever make me uneasy.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

How long are we going to let the far right keep stealing our words? It's a proud respectable cryptocurrency term.

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[–] NullDrive@lemmy.world 48 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Especially anything from Linus, they’re a very scummy group.

[–] archonet@lemy.lol 41 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (14 children)

Am I the only one who, upon seeing his videos for the first time, immediately thought he was an annoying little pinhead?

Like, I've watched his channel(s) surge in popularity over the years, and this entire time I've just been wondering why, and the issues that have come out about his little empire since have only confirmed my initial prejudice.

[–] stardust@lemmy.ca 24 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Their entire video is an ad filled experience of shilling not only their sponsors but themselves. Incredibly obnoxious and cramming in every YouTube stereotype from begging for likes and subs to clickbait titles and then insisting they have to do it so they can have their cake and eat it makes them even more obnoxious than if they just did it without wanting to be forgiven for it.

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[–] riodoro1@lemmy.world 42 points 2 days ago (4 children)

If something advertises on youtube it’s a scam. Simple to remember really.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 28 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I don't mind things that are an actual thing to buy. I want to research it first--you can get a better electric razor than Manscaped for not much more--but at least it's clear how they make their money. Honey was obviously getting money from someone other than their users, and that's an immediate red flag.

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

I and many other people naturally assumed that honey was getting their money from consumer data collection. Which is why I didn't use the service myself. The surprise is the fact that the scam isn't just consumer data collection but actually stealing commissions from content creators as well as using consumers as a gateway to stealing money from businesses that they have contracts with.

[–] riodoro1@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

Yeah. PayPal bought a coupon browser extension for how much? If the only thing they do is save YOU money, how come they can afford a sponsored segment in a mr beast video?

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

This isn't even remotely true. There are lots of advertisers and sponsors that aren't scams. But unfortunately our consumer protection laws haven't quite caught up to the digital marketplace. So there is a lot of room on the internet in general for scammy behavior.

As always, it's buyer beware. As well as a big amount of content creator beware as well.

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[–] TommySoda@lemmy.world 205 points 2 days ago (5 children)

I never trusted Honey to begin with but this goes far deeper than I ever expected. I always wondered "yeah, but where do they get their money?" I always figured it was just a way to take people's data and sell it to data brokers (which they probably also do, let's be honest) but this is just blatant fraud. Stealing affiliate money from links and having companies pay them to purposefully give out worse coupon codes is just devious through and through. It's basically free money and everybody else, whether influencer or consumer, get fucked over in the process.

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 85 points 2 days ago (9 children)

Yeah I always wondered what the catch was? The CEO was always posting on Reddit trying to defend honey and how cool they were.

Either way, I never trust any shopping deal plugins. The whole idea of them is sketchy.

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[–] nooneescapesthelaw@mander.xyz 32 points 2 days ago (15 children)

Ltt didn't hide shit, they posted it on a public forum

[–] poke@sh.itjust.works 15 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Some very vocal people on Lemmy just love hating on LTT. I don't think this topic was worth them making a main channel video on, I think their forum post was good and I believe they even mentioned this functionality of Honey a few times on the WAN show. It wasn't a secret, and anyone who cared to do in-depth research on a potential sponsor could have found out.

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[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 23 points 2 days ago

Yeah, that not nothing but it isn't far off. They have a massive platform. It deserved at least a video telling people about it.

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[–] aulin@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Wait, when did Paypal buy Honey? 😳

[–] CafecitoHippo@lemm.ee 31 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

And Honey has always worked like this. So PayPal knew exactly what they were buying which explains the price tag. Paypal knew they were going to make their money back and then some.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 78 points 2 days ago (3 children)

A useful question to ask when hearing about a new company is "What's your business model?"

[–] pixelscript@lemm.ee 25 points 2 days ago (11 children)

There is no such thing as a free and benevolent product with an advertising budget.

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[–] TimeNaan@lemmy.world 34 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Linus Tech Tips really is scum. Yet more proof of that.

[–] theherk@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Same person that said ad blocking was the same as piracy.

edit: People downvoting me like I disagreed with him. Just saying how he looks at it. I think it’s a bit of a false dichotomy but they are definitely similar.

[–] themakara@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Have you ever heard his full stance on the matter? Because he clearly stated that this is not a judgment against using it. Heck, he's been open about having sailed the high seas himself and still doing so for media he physically owns.

It's just that gaining access to media while circumventing the payment (ads in this case) is basically piracy. Which is fair.

Signed, A uBlock User

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[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

It…is? You’re copying digital content without paying for it. I use uBlock but I don’t pretend to have the moral high ground.

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[–] EngineerGaming@feddit.nl 47 points 2 days ago

I thought it was just collecting and selling user data but while I'd bet it's still happening - wow, this is way craftier.

[–] criticon@lemmy.ca 60 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I used honey for a while and it was working great for me with "exclusive" coupons and Cashback and then one time I bough a cellphone that was supposed to have $250 cashback. I did all the necessary steps, read the t&c, took screenshots of the offer and made the purchase. I never got the transaction to appear on their website. Sending emails it trying to contact them was futile (I even made an automatic script to send an email everyday to follow up). Fuck PayPal

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[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 87 points 2 days ago (11 children)

If you're sitting at a poker table and you can't tell who the sucker is, it's you.

Alternately, if you look at an online service and can't tell what the product is, It's you.

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[–] pmc@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Honestly I thought all of this was common knowledge at this point, back when I used Honey (many years ago) I saw its affiliate code in the address bar and thought "huh, that's how they make money"

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[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 49 points 2 days ago (7 children)

PayPal is not customer friendly, they also straight up steal funds by locking your account

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