Amazon Warned Holiday Shopper That Honey, a Popular Browser Extension, Was a 'Security Risk' (wired.com) 29
In an apparent swipe at PayPal's recent $4 billion acquisition of Honey, a popular browser extension that tracks prices and discount codes, Amazon labeled the service as "a security risk" for shoppers over the holidays. Wired reports: "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," the message read. "To keep your data private and secure, uninstall this extension immediately." It was followed by a hyperlink where users could learn how to do so. Screenshots of the warning were posted to forums and social media by Honey users, like Ryan Hutchins, an editor at Politico.
Honey isn't some obscure browser extension from an unknown developer. Founded in 2012, the Los Angeles-based startup now boasts over 17 million users. It finds discount codes to save shoppers money at tens of thousands of online retailers, including Amazon. Amazon's warning, which began appearing on December 20, confused and angered many of Honey's users, some of whom complained on its official social media channels. The browser extension has been compatible with Amazon since it was founded, and it is a significant part of Honey's appeal. Amazon declined to explain why it decided to label Honey a security risk so suddenly last month. "Our goal is to warn customers about browser extensions that collect personal shopping data without their knowledge or consent," a spokesperson for the company said in a statement. They declined to answer follow-up questions about the basis for that claim. Honey says in its privacy policy that it doesn't "track your search engine history, emails, or your browsing on any site that is not a retail website."
"We're aware that Droplist and other Honey features were not available on Amazon for a period of time. We know these are tools that people love and worked quickly to restore the functionality. Our extension is not -- and has never been -- a security risk and is safe to use," a Honey spokesperson said.
Honey isn't some obscure browser extension from an unknown developer. Founded in 2012, the Los Angeles-based startup now boasts over 17 million users. It finds discount codes to save shoppers money at tens of thousands of online retailers, including Amazon. Amazon's warning, which began appearing on December 20, confused and angered many of Honey's users, some of whom complained on its official social media channels. The browser extension has been compatible with Amazon since it was founded, and it is a significant part of Honey's appeal. Amazon declined to explain why it decided to label Honey a security risk so suddenly last month. "Our goal is to warn customers about browser extensions that collect personal shopping data without their knowledge or consent," a spokesperson for the company said in a statement. They declined to answer follow-up questions about the basis for that claim. Honey says in its privacy policy that it doesn't "track your search engine history, emails, or your browsing on any site that is not a retail website."
"We're aware that Droplist and other Honey features were not available on Amazon for a period of time. We know these are tools that people love and worked quickly to restore the functionality. Our extension is not -- and has never been -- a security risk and is safe to use," a Honey spokesperson said.
What's to say? (Score:5, Interesting)
"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," the message read. "To keep your data private and secure, uninstall this extension immediately."
Well, ain't that the pot calling the kettle black.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
Look who's talking!
Practice what you preach!
What's that you see in the mirror?
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
People living in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
In other words...you're being hypocritical, Amazon.
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If an extension is honest about tracking your habits and offers you a good service in return then I don't see a problem - I can choose to use it or not.
A while ago Firefox offered to start the browser "clean" for a faster experience by removing add-ons. But the add-ons I use are Adblockers and cookie cleaners so without them the experience will be slower. And I haven't seen any performance issue - I can actually accept quirkiness if I don't have to see all annoyances that the ads are.
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Re:Use Amazon in your ads and... (Score:5, Informative)
Amazon is already trying to give you the best deal possible... anybody who says they can find better is cheating.
Now, now Jeff... I know Mackenzie took quite a few of your billions, but you’re not exactly destitute. Lighten up.
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Link the dots please, it isn't that hard. "The New Guy 2.0" (OP) has been since the beginning suspected of being one of creimer's sock puppet accounts although he has been really careful with that one if our suspicions are right. Chris is a really complex being with multiple personalities. In case that you never heard about him, he makes most of his money with amazon affiliate links. In the end, it is orders of magnitude more plausible that the post was from Chris than it is that it was from Jeff.
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Amazon is already trying to give you the best deal possible... anybody who says they can find better is cheating.
Amazon is indeed TRYING. But trying does not mean/guarantee 100% success. My wife and I regularly go afield and frequently find better deals than Amazon offers.
Last time I looked, "free enterprise" did NOT include willfully suppressing competition, and lying about a rival product certainly qualifies as suppression.
Re: Use Amazon in your ads and... (Score:3, Informative)
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You probably won't find this surprising, but (since I regularly shop in China) I've noticed eBay and Amazon typically charge two to ten times more than the cheapest online retail consumer price. Some reseller is getting rich, whether it's Amazon or someone on the marketplace. Of course, some other reseller is also losing money, if he bought too much of the wrong product and can't offload it and still make up for the shipping costs. There are "made in USA" products (or products sold by a western company that
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OMG. Jeff is on here.
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Amazon can not be trusted. Why they really hate honey, your personalised Amazon shopping experience, where they learn you habits and when you check prices and when you do not, so cheap to get you in, no longer so cheap once in and when you are not looking those prices will ramp up. So yeah Honey is a security risk to their intended personalised shopping experience where bumped up prices will be unique to you, once their AI figures out it can start scamming you.
Make no mistake Amazon's core pricing scam is p
Re: Use Amazon in your ads and... (Score:5, Insightful)
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To date, the security business has been an ivory tower of credibility and collaboration
Haha... good one.
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With minimal effort, you could probably find a couple of those coupon codes. With substantial effort, you could probably find most of them.
It's not worth spending time or effort looking for those things on every purchase for most people. An addon that automates it is a value add for many, many people. And I've had it apply coupon codes on sites and work several times. It found a coupon code for VESA mounts when I bought on Newegg a few months ago. N
I was doubtful (Score:5, Funny)
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Probably works best on amazon? I didn't have much luck with honey a while ago when I tried it, though I don't shop much on amazon. would make most sense that it would have the most discount codes for amazon though. it actually messes up with amazons ad efficiency tracking big time which is probably why they're pissed off about it..
If you want this free cake Im going to need access (Score:2)
They are comparing for free (Score:1)
All extensions are a risk (Score:1)
Honey does track you (Score:5, Informative)
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Amazon is probably the site it would be most ethical to use it on I guess. if you just go on amazon.com and buy stuff anyways if you don't want to support some random site.
Amazon the all wise and powerful has spoken (Score:2)
Good enough for the sheep - they willingly worship at the Amazon altar of amazing leadership in privacy protection, security and truth in advertising.
Wonder how badly Honey has been impacting the Amazon bottom line...
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Honey: Doubles as a Spam-vertisement plugin (Score:2)
I once installed this Honey plugin in my regular firefox browser, which just so happens to have Slashdot as its home page. I also have the "Disable Advertising" option selected so that Slashdot shows me fewer Ads while I joyfully waste more of my time reading stuff here. I noticed that almost immediately that as soon as I installed Honey I suddenly had advertisements injected into the Slashdot upper right frames where the advertisements were normally turned off. These were not even the kind of cool-tech Ads
Amazon Assistant (Score:2)
Doesn't Honey just do the same thing as Amazon Assistant, but only when browsing Amazon.com? AA peeks at everything you browse anywhere to find comparable Amazon products. If you run it, you get pop-ups whenever you shop for an item on a great many websites other than Amazon websites.
"Amazon Assistant automatically collects information about websites you view where we may have relevant product or service recommendations when you are not interacting with Amazon Assistant. We do not connect this information