During the peak of holiday shopping, some Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) users received an odd message regarding a coupon-finder browser extension called Honey. The message read, "Honey's browser extension is a security risk... uninstall this extension immediately." The message surprised many people - perhaps PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) most of all considering they had only just paid $4 billion dollars for the start-up.
Amazon's reasoning for calling the extension a security risk within the message itself referenced the fact that Honey "tracks your private shopping behavior, collects data... your order history and items saved, and can read or change any of your data on any website you visit." Amazon does have a competing plug-in that also automatically searches for coupons on retail sites.
"Our goal is to warn customers about browser extensions that collect personal shopping data without their knowledge or consent such as customer name, shipping and/or billing address and payment method from the checkout page," Amazon told CNBC.
Of course, there are a few other suspicions as to why such a harshly worded message was sent at the peak of the shopping season.
PayPal was previously owned by Amazon competitor eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY), and PayPal is not accepted as a payment option at check-out. PayPal bought Honey in December just before Amazon sent their warning. Honey lets users find coupons on shopping sites while making a commission off each sale and currently boasts 17 million users. Honey's extension has been compatible with Amazon for nearly seven years, since it hit the market.
In response to Amazon's actions, a spokesperson for Honey said that their plug-in "is not - and has never been - a security risk and is safe to use."
"We only use data in ways that directly benefit Honey members - helping people save money and time - and in ways they would expect. Our commitment is clearly spelled out in our privacy and security policy." The company said that they only use this data to find the best coupons for their customers and that they never "sell your personal information. Ever."
As you might expect, many Amazon users went to Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) to express their surprise and confusion caused by Amazon's warning. Honey and Amazon user Ryan Hutchins, who also happens to be an editor at Politico, summed up the experience tweeting, "Amazon is telling shoppers that the browser extension Honey... is malware... PayPal bought Honey in November for $4 billion. That's one extensive piece of Malware."
The message sent by Amazon included a link for customers to follow for instructions on how to uninstall the Honey plug-in, but it is currently unclear how many users actually did so.