As a result of the Honey expose, Google has now changed its Chrome extension policies concerning affiliate ads and marketing.

Honey was accused of taking affiliate revenue from the same influencers it paid for promotion by using its Chrome extension to swap in its own affiliate link before you checked out. According to the updated Google policy posted today, this isn’t allowed in most cases:

A new update to Google's Chrome Web Store policy should help protect shoppers from dubious affiliate marketing extensions.

Google has officially implemented a new platform for Chrome extensions, and it brings both good and bad news. On the positive side, Manifest V3 promises greater safety and security within Chrome. On the negative side, extensions that are unsupported are now being actively disabled or blocked.

In an apparent reaction to the infamous Honey scandal that rocked the internet at the start of the year, Google has altered the rules around Chrome extensions to block the tactics the Honey extension is believed to have used.

In the wake of the controversy surrounding PayPal's Honey browser extension, Google Chrome has updated its policies to ban the practices that the extension was observed to be engaging in. Chrome's updated extension policies for affiliate ads includes wording that seems to be a direct response to many of the tactics Honey was accused of participating in,