Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, co-founders of shopping app Phia, knew since at least December about a practice of claiming commissions on sales they did not drive. This technique, known as cookie stuffing, automatically placed tracking cookies without any user interaction, violating contracts with commercial partners. The company’s daily revenue dropped from $80,000 to between $10,000 and $28,000 after disabling these features in early July. The practice accounted for approximately 51% of the merchandise value Phia claimed credit for in June, according to an internal message from a data scientist. Phia, which raised $35 million in January from investors, was suspended by affiliate network Impact.com and has begun repaying some commissions.
Source: Read the original article
