Phoebe Gates, daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, finds her AI-powered shopping application, Phia, at the center of a significant controversy. Launched last spring, Phia is reportedly facing accusations of employing a deceptive tactic known as “cookie stuffing” to claim affiliate sales it did not legitimately generate.
Allegations of Unearned Commissions
Multiple investigations, including those conducted by prominent researcher Ben Edelman, Bloomberg, and Capital One Shopping, have brought to light instances where the Phia browser extension allegedly claimed referral commissions through fraudulent clicks. These reports suggest that Phia was not only attaching its affiliate code to sales it didn’t drive but was also potentially siphoning commissions that rightfully belonged to other publishers.
Understanding ‘Cookie Stuffing’
For those unfamiliar, “cookie stuffing” is an illicit affiliate marketing practice where a website or application covertly drops multiple affiliate cookies onto a user’s browser without the user’s knowledge or action. This allows the “stuffer” to potentially earn commissions on subsequent purchases, even if the user later navigates directly to the merchant or through another legitimate affiliate link. Ben Edelman’s detailed breakdown reportedly included a video demonstrating how Phia’s “affiliate link invisibly loaded into a second tab” on iOS after a user visited a merchant’s website, illustrating the mechanism of the alleged scheme.
Phia’s Response: A ‘Bug’ in the System
In response to the mounting allegations, Phia has attributed the reported issues to a “bug” within its codebase. A spokesperson for the company, in a statement to Bloomberg, clarified: “Within the last 24 hours, we were made aware that in a recent release our codebase was causing misattributions from a subset of users. As soon as we were notified, our team worked overnight to identify, mitigate, and has since resolved the issue.”
The Timeline of the Feature
Both Edelman and Bloomberg reports indicate that the controversial feature enabling these alleged misattributions was rolled out in December 2025. This timeline suggests the issue may have been active for several months before being publicly exposed and subsequently addressed by Phia.
As the tech world watches, the allegations against Phia underscore the critical importance of transparency and ethical practices in the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-driven commerce and affiliate marketing. The incident serves as a stark reminder for both consumers and industry players to remain vigilant against deceptive digital tactics.
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