Phia Extension Dropped by Impact.com Over Cookie Hijacking

A Bloomberg investigation revealed that shopping extension Phia quietly engaged in cookie stuffing, overwriting affiliate tracking codes in the background to pocket commissions on transactions it did not generate.

Co-founded in 2025 by Phoebe Gates, daughter of Bill Gates, alongside climate activist Sophia Kianni, Phia pitched itself as a price comparison tool resembling Google Flights for retail. Backed by more than $40 million from investors, including Khloé Kardashian and Hailey Bieber, the service claims to help shoppers locate lower prices and active coupon codes across merchant sites.

Technical reviews conducted by Bloomberg, an independent consultant, and an industry rival showed that when a customer visited an online retailer—even by entering the address directly or arriving via a publisher like Wirecutter—Phia launched a hidden background tab. During checkout, it injected its own tracking tags over previous referral links, rerouting the sales attribution entirely to itself.

Following the revelations, affiliate and influencer marketing network Impact.com temporarily suspended Phia from its platform. Company representatives told Bloomberg that the software has been updated to remove the redirecting behavior, a change the publication verified in subsequent testing.

The practice mirrors tactics previously attributed to rival shopping extensions. In January 2025, YouTube creator Devin Stone filed a lawsuit against PayPal, alleging that its coupon extension Honey similarly replaced creator referral links without disclosure, in alleged violation of California unfair competition law. That lawsuit followed demonstrations by YouTuber MegaLag showing Honey fabricating background sessions at checkout. In March 2025, Google updated its Chrome Web Store policy to formally prohibit extensions from hijacking affiliate clicks.

Source: habr via Bloomberg