News Amazon Accuses Honey Extension of Being a Security Risk

[Admin]

Amazon issued warnings to its customers saying the Honey browser extension represents a security risk and should be uninstalled immediately.

Amazon Accuses Honey Extension of Being a Security Risk : Read more

 

[Newtonius]

But.... but... Mr Beast wouldn't hurt or lie to us. He promised us,

"Honey is a free browser add-on available on Google, Oprah, Firefox, Safari - if it's a browser, it has Honey. All you have to do is when you're checking-out on one of these major sites just click on that little orange button and it will scan the ENTIRE internet and find discount codes for you. As you see right here I'm on Hanes, you know I ordered some shirts because who doesn't like ordering shirts? We saved 11$! Dude our total is 55$ and after Honey it was 44. I clicked once and I saved 11$. There's literally NO reason not to install Honey, it takes 2 clicks. 10 million people use it, 100,000 reviews. Unless you hate money you should install Honey."

With such a tear-jerking speech like that how can one turn their back on Honey?...

 

[Co BIY]

So the danger of the extension is now they will have all of Amazon's proprietary data on me.

Nice. Honey is pretty heavily advertised. This is the problem with a large portion of a companies value being consumer data. It is so easily transferred and devalued.

With threats like this I see Amazon and Google getting very interested in strong consumer protection regulations that will prevent other from easily amassing as much useful data as they have and leaving them with great piles of "legacy data".

 

[Math Geek]

that's exactly the issue, amazon and google want to be the only players in the game and can't believe anyone else wants to get into the data mining game.

they'll do anything to stop it and protect their monopoly.

hell i don't even have amazon on my phone and yet i still get very specific recommendation emails from them based on my last text conversation. so they even get to read my texts despite not even having the app on my phone at all!!!

 

[bit_user]

zOMG!! $4B for a freaking browser extension?? Uh, yeah they're gonna be collecting some serious data.

available on Google, Oprah, Firefox, Safari

Had to lol at the substitution of Oprah for Opera. She should buy them out, just so she can do that.

 

[bit_user]

hell i don't even have amazon on my phone and yet i still get very specific recommendation emails from them based on my last text conversation. so they even get to read my texts despite not even having the app on my phone at all!!!

It's your cellular carrier that's almost certainly spying on you, and just selling the data to probably anyone willing to pay for it.

If you recall, one of the first acts of the 2017 Congress was to repeal the FCC regulation that prevented ISPs from spying on their customers. I don't know if the same regulation covered your case, or if it was something similar.

 

[Math Geek]

not sure, but it would not surprise me if there isn't a direct link in the firmware straight to amazon with open access to the phone.

normally when i am surprised by the emails there is less than 10 minutes since the conversation. so whatever they have set-up it is pretty freaking fast in how it works/reacts.

 

[sykozis]

not sure, but it would not surprise me if there isn't a direct link in the firmware straight to amazon with open access to the phone.

normally when i am surprised by the emails there is less than 10 minutes since the conversation. so whatever they have set-up it is pretty freaking fast in how it works/reacts.

A few months ago, I was having a conversation with a co-worker, and within minutes I had e-mail from amazon about the exact item we were discussing, as well as having an ad on FB about it.....and Google had already gone through the trouble of finding the Tomshardware article on the item....

A few weeks ago, another co-worker and I were discussing movies. I get home, and Google Play Movies is recommending every movie we had discussed.

That's a little freaky....

 

[Math Geek]

yup it's a known fact they listen in whether you have the voice recognition turned on or not.

but so long as they are making money and buying the gov to stay out of it, we'll never see any rules stopping the big brother eavesdropping.

especially when one of the perks for the gov is free access to the surveillance data.

 

[bit_user]

we'll never see any rules stopping the big brother eavesdropping.

Well, the FCC did have a rule preventing ISPs from spying on their customers, until the Republican Congress passed a law to strike it down and enable the practice.

"What the heck are you thinking?" - CommonWealth Magazine

“I HAVE A simple question: What the heck are you thinking? What is in your mind?” With that, a dumbfounded Rep. Michael Capuano took to the House floor on Tuesday and spoke for many as Republicans passed a measure to kill internet privacy regulations that were approved late last year. The rules...

commonwealthmagazine.org

So, I suppose it could always come back. However, it would now require another law to override the first, and re-introduce a ban on the practice. Something to think about, this November.

The final vote was 215 to repeal the privacy rules with 205 votes to keep them in place. Voting was mostly along party lines, though 15 Republicans broke rank to vote against the resolution. No Democrats voted in its favor.

House Votes To Allow Internet Service Providers To Sell, Share Your Personal Information

The new Federal Communications Commission's rules intended to limit how companies like AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and Charter can use internet customers' sensitive personal information are effectively dead in the water, thanks to a House of Representatives vote today to kill the regulations, making...

www.consumerreports.org

215 to 205 - that's actually closer than I thought. So, it does actually matter who we elect, and it does matter whether we tell them what we care about and hold them to account.

Finally, to temper your cynicism, consider that your government was looking out for you, but you probably didn't know or care until that got shut down. But, the thing to keep in mind is that The People put those politicians in office, who struck down the rule, and then didn't send a loud enough message that they value their privacy rights. If you don't take your values into the voting booth and contact your elected officials to let them know how you feel, the outcome should not be too surprising.

The worst thing about cynicism is that it's ultimately self-fulfilling.

 

[Math Geek]

none of that has anything to do with what we were complaining about

google/facebook/amazon/honey extension etc etc etc are not my isp. there was a rule in place for the isp's which you noted got thrown out. but there has never been and as i said above, won't be anything stopping the extensive intrusions these other companies make billions off of every year. it just gets worse and worse and more and more gets connected. amazon sees my browsing, buying habits online and now my conversations on my mobile and so on and so on. i can also put a box in my house where they can listen to everything going on there and put one on my tv so they can know all my tv habits as well. throw in them buying my credit card and medical records and what does amazon/facebook/google etc etc etc not know about me??

they have bought the gov and write the rules themselves literally. so as true as your comments are, they really don't pertain to this article nor the comments here.

 

[bit_user]

none of that has anything to do with what we were complaining about

google/facebook/amazon/honey extension etc etc etc are not my isp. there was a rule in place for the isp's which you noted got thrown out. but there has never been and as i said above, won't be anything stopping the extensive intrusions these other companies make billions off of every year. it just gets worse and worse and more and more gets connected. amazon sees my browsing, buying habits online and now my conversations on my mobile and so on and so on.

I don't see how you can explain the apparent eavesdropping on your conversations, unless it's your cell carrier that's doing the spying!

The issue of ad networks spying on our online activities is also a cause for concern, but somehow I don't view it as being so serious as my phone conversations being tapped. I guess, because it's ostensibly easier to work around most of the ad networks' spying, if you want, but it's kinda hard to avoid phone calls, in at least some circumstances.

they have bought the gov and write the rules themselves literally.

You exaggerate. 215 to 205. That's a lot of politicians they didn't manage to buy.

I challenge you to support politicians who won't be bought.