Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Last year, the browser extension Honey got caught up in controversy over how it took affiliate revenue away from creators.
- Instead of only taking credit when it saved users money, Honey attempted to use its own affiliate ID for all sales.
- Google is now updating Chrome extension affiliate ad policies to explicitly forbid this practice.
What’s more alluring than the promise of free money? PayPal’s Honey browser extension may not have outright paid you to use it, but what it offered sounded like the next best thing, scrounging the web for the best coupon codes to save you as much money as possible every time you bought something online. While that looked great on face value, it emerged late last year that Honey was replacing affiliate codes with its own, and in the process harming the very creators who had been promoting it so heavily. As the fallout from that scandal continues, Google is taking steps to prevent anything like it from happening again.
One of the big ways that creators generate income is through affiliate links, which let companies share a portion of their revenue with the people who send consumer traffic their way. This is often accomplished with the help of unique identifiers and cookies. One problem with this system is that only one party can get credit for a sale.
With Honey, it turned out that the browser extension was replacing that affiliate cookie data with its own, regardless of whether or not it was able to successfully save you money through a coupon code. That meant Honey got all the affiliate income, and the people actually responsible for generating the traffic got none.
To its existing affiliate ad policies, Google has added the following rule:
- Affiliate links, codes, or cookies must only be included when the extension provides a direct and transparent user benefit related to the extension’s core functionality. It is not permitted to inject affiliate links without related user action and without providing a tangible benefit to users. Some common violations include:
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- Inserting affiliate links when no discount, cashback, or donation is provided.
- An extension that continuously injects affiliate links in the background without related user action.
It’s quite difficult to read that first example as anything other than a direct response to the Honey incident. Per Google’s earlier policies, an extension like Honey was allowed to replace affiliate IDs with its own so long as the user was aware, and took some action to engage with the extension. This new change takes that a step further by clarifying that the user needs to actually benefit from the interaction, and that extensions are not permitted to claw away affiliate revenue without, frankly, earning it.
Of course, actually enforcing a policy like this is going to be contingent on violators being spotted in the first place, and considering how long Honey was able to fly under the radar, that may still be cause for concern. Still, it sounds like a fair, overdue move on Google’s part, and one we’re happy to see all the same.
