Honey’s Dieselgate: Detecting and Tricking Testers:
MegaLag’s December 2024 video introduced 18 million viewers to serious questions about Honey, the widely-used browser shopping plug-in—in particular, whether Honey abides by the rules set by affiliate networks and merchants, and whether Honey takes commissions that should flow to other affiliates. [...] Honey was plainly breaking the rules.
As it turns out, Honey’s misconduct is considerably worse than MegaLag, I, or others knew. When Honey is concerned that a user may be a tester—a “network quality” employee, a merchant’s affiliate manager, an affiliate, or an enthusiast—Honey designs its software to honor stand down in full. But when Honey feels confident that it’s being used by an ordinary user, Honey defies stand down rules.