this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
1661 points (99.5% liked)
Firefox
18050 readers
189 users here now
A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Actually curious. What's wrong with people making money?
Nothing wrong with people making money if they are honest about their shilling and tell you upfront if they are affiliate links and they get a cut if you click on them, or that their product review is sponsored. One of my favorite yt channels is cheaprvliving and Bob will be straight and honest with you about that and I like that.
I do think its a little sleezy when creators don't be honest with you about them shilling and making money from affiliate links.
In many cases a lot of sites don’t make it clear that they have a conflict of interest.
You want to push a product on me and you’ll get a cut? Cool, but disclose that.
Nothing provided it is an honest and upfront with consent from the user. The problem is vast majority of affiliate links are non-consensual, buried in articles and in the worst case are the reason that pages even exist - "top ten dishwashers", "50 gifts to buy your wife for Christmas" etc. clickbait garbage. I doubt most visitors even understand that's why the pages exist or the financial remuneration they get from making these lists.
So it would not be a bad thing that if a browser to detect an affiliate link and ask you if you wanted to follow it as-is or strip the affiliate info out with a checkbox to remember the decision for the site.