Honey Caught With Its Hand In The Jar; Indie Agencies Zero In On The ‘Forgotten Middle’

Trap more flies with honey

Honey, a free browser extension that automatically finds and applies discount codes, is accused of cheating its users and the online content creators who promoted it.

That’s according to a YouTube technical investigator walking around MegaLag. They claim that Honey-owned PayPal is effectively stealing credit for online purchases by replacing attribution tags from influencers’ affiliate links with their own tags. This happens regardless of whether the end user receives a working discount code, which they often don’t.

How will Honey get out of this? By using last click attribution. Because users click the Honey discount code search widget after clicking the original affiliate link, Honey can claim credit for the last click.

MegaLag plans to release at least two more videos, but it looks like the damage has already been done. Since the first video was posted on YouTube on December 21st, it has received more than 17 million views – not to mention a lot of YouTubers who have responded their own hot takes.

The investigation also allegedly caused the loss of Honey three million users and counting.

All Hail The Indie Agency

Big agencies want big clients.

When Omnicom and IPG merge, the newly merged mega-holdco will have its hands full wooing the P&Gs and Coca-Colas of the world.

But where does that leave smaller and mid-sized brands? Or, as Marilois Snowman, CEO of independent media planning and buying agency Mediastruction, refers to them: “The forgotten middle.”

Well, many in the middle are specifically turning away from the holdco cookie cutter model and looking for independent agencies that have a sense of innovation and a more hands-on approach, Digiday reports.

In fact, the stage is set for independents to kill it in 2025, says David Dweck, vice president of paid media at independent digital marketing agency Wpromote.

Much of the business Wpromote gets outside of holding companies is clients at the tail end of the Fortune 500 or even subsidiaries of major brands, Dweck tells Digiday. “They come to us because they’re the redheaded stepchild in the room,” she says.

In other words, they don’t get good service from holdcos, and frankly, they’ve had enough. “The level of sophistication they need isn’t there because they’re getting the D team,” Dweck says.

Scale is great, but sometimes it’s better to be nimble.

Consent to production

The Secret Service has been using Babel Street’s location tracking tool, Locate X, to aid in investigations for years. It is claimed that there is no need to secure permission to use Locate X because suspects have previously given consent to have their location tracked.

Well, as it turns out, that’s not the case.

According to 404 MediaThe Secret Service did nothing to verify that these suspects actually consented to location tracking.

In 2022, Senator Ron Wyden emailed the Secret Service asking what steps it had taken to review whether the location data it purchased was collected from consumers who realized their data would be shared with other third parties.

The Secret Service’s response? “No.”

To make matters worse, last month the FTC banned Venntel, the company that provides the basic location data set used by Locate X, from selling any sensitive location data. The FTC found that Venntel did not always obtain user consent before selling this data.

It’s yet another example of how the origins of consent can be lost when various third parties trade data — and how even the basics of consumer privacy are being ignored, even at the highest levels of government.

But wait! There’s more!

President-elect Trump, in his election to the FCC and FTC, has promised to roll back online censorship — a position at odds with European regulators who push for stricter moderation. [NYT]

Speaking of Trump, he asked the Supreme Court to stop a federal law banning TikTok from taking effect next month, despite previously supporting a ban on the app. [WSJ]

Meta’s vision for the future is filled with users generated by artificial intelligence. [FT]

A consumer watchdog claims deep fryers made by Aigostar and Xiaomi are collecting user data, storing it on Chinese servers and sharing it with TikTok and Facebook. [ABC News]

More marketers disagree with Omnicom acquiring IPG than approve the deal. [Adweek]

Researchers have found that Google allows advertisers to target cancer patients with sensitive keywords — and clinics promoting unproven treatments are taking advantage. [HKS Misinformation Review]