Following PayPal’s $4 billion acquisition of Honey, global online giant Amazon has warned its users that the extension represents a ‘security risk’.
PayPal had sought to use the acquisition to ‘transform’ its customer experience as well as increase sales and customer engagement for its merchants.
The warnings about Amazon came just prior to the Christmas period, with the site warning its users to uninstall the app as it represented a threat.
The site has since added in a warning to its users: “Honey tracks your private shopping behavior, collects data like your order history and items saved, and can read or change any of your data on any website you visit. To keep your data private and secure, uninstall this extension immediately.”
A Honey spokesperson responded: “Our extension is not – and has never been – a security risk and is safe to use.
“We have a team dedicated to ensuring the security of our users’ information and we regularly engage expert third-party security firms to assess our security protections.
“If ever an individual or independent researcher contacts us about a potential vulnerability, we engage with that person to understand and remedy the issue.”
At the time of the original announcement of the acquisition, Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal emphasised: “Honey is amongst the most transformative acquisitions in PayPal’s history. It provides a broad portfolio of services to simplify the consumer shopping experience, while at the same time making it more affordable and rewarding.
“The combination of Honey’s complementary consumer products with our platform will significantly enhance our ability to drive engagement and play a more meaningful role in the daily lives of our consumers.”
