this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
957 points (97.2% liked)

Technology

60085 readers
3139 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

πŸ–• Fuck PayPal

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

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 14 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Why do I feel like mentioning the LTT was very personal?πŸ˜‚

[–] [email protected] 15 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (5 children)

They're one of the largest tech media companies and deliberately chose to sweep this under the rug instead of reporting on it. Then they took sponsorships from Karma, which is a competitor to Honey that does the exact same thing.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 21 hours ago

I haven't trusted LTT for about 5 years now.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Ever since it was explained that Mr. Beast only smiles with his mouth, I get skeeved out every time I see him.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

Shit! You are right. Thats horrible. And explains why he freaks me out.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Mr Beast literally shadow banned the word teeth from his YT comments. It's hilarious.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 16 hours ago

It's a shame too, I really miss all the great tooth related discussions we used to have there.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago

Oh... THAT's what's off!

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago

Just saw a video that the honey people are making another SCAM called PIE. They make an Ad blocker, then put their own ads. wtf.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/VTxnM3J0I0k?width=828&height=466

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago

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

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I'm so proud I never consumed these guys shit

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

I think what was truly surprising is that they were bought for 4 billion.That much money for... basically an out and out scam. Paypal is that sure that it's:

  1. entirely legal

  2. Will never be stopped

  3. will return on a 4 billion investment.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 day ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 23 hours 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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day 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?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 23 hours 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.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago

If only they had some medium to post the information, perhaps a medium that that VAST MAJORITY of their viewers use.

β€œBut the plans were on display…”

β€œOn display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”

β€œThat’s the display department.”

β€œWith a flashlight.”

β€œAh, well, the lights had probably gone.”

β€œSo had the stairs.”

β€œBut look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”

β€œYes,” said Arthur, β€œyes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying β€˜Beware of the Leopard.”

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 day ago (3 children)

They didn't hide it, but a huge portion of their audience doesn't read the forums. A 10 minute video of Linus ranting about them would have opened this scandal to a wider audience years ago.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 21 hours ago

And then they took sponsorships from Karma which does the exact same thing

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Linus usually likes to rant about it on the WAN show then they usually make a clip for YouTube, but weird he didn’t do that for honey, maybe he didn’t know how far the scam went.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago

As creator that makes some of their profits from affiliate links, I don't see how that could be the case for him.

Seems more likely they had a reason to avoid beef with PayPal.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Could have a non disparagement clause in their former agreement

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

non disparagement clause

Not the level of a non-compete clause but that's a scummy thing I hope is not legal.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 23 hours ago

There may have been non-disclosure agreements between Linus tech tips and PayPal Honey. They may have threatened to sue him if he went public. I'm assuming we'll find out the details in the next few weeks.

[–] Cethin 23 points 1 day 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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (2 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I don’t think this topic was worth them making a main channel video on

Their viewers getting scammed by tech they promoted isn't worth a video on their main channel? If they could legally do it I think they should have.

Some very vocal people on Lemmy just love hating on LTT

LTT have made mistakes but the dunking here does seem disproportionate.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

And yet here's the scandal being exposed TWO YEARS LATER. Yeah, LTT couldn't possibly have handled this better... /s

[–] [email protected] 3 points 20 hours ago

They told everyone and nobody cared, turns out people care if a YouTube video is made framing the same thing differently. Like yeah, Honey's practice is bad for the creator industry, but is it bad enough to bring it back to the people who took their money? No, I don't think so.I think this is more of an example of how easy it is to get the masses angry with a YouTube video than anything. It's good that more people are going to move away from this information harvesting app, but I really feel like the reaction and hatred is overblown and, at least for the hatred towards creators, unwarranted.

The way I see it, people still take money from predatory gambling sites, and if any creator deserves pushback, it's them.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Wait, when did Paypal buy Honey? 😳

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 246 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (33 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 52 minutes ago

See also: RayCons headphones, which appear to be unilaterally bullshit but were on absolutely every video for a couple of months, touted as being the very best.

load more comments (32 replies)
load more comments
view more: next β€Ί