Cookie stuffing is not a bug. It’s a choice. And that distinction matters enormously when a startup’s founders are now accused of knowing about the practice for months while publicly claiming ignorance. According to TechCrunch, leaked Slack messages and sources familiar with the matter show that Phia co-founders Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni were aware their company was cookie stuffing as far back as December, well before Bloomberg’s original investigation forced the issue into the open.
For those unfamiliar, cookie stuffing is when an affiliate platform quietly drops tracking cookies on a user’s browser to claim commission credit for purchases it had nothing to do with. It’s the digital equivalent of a real estate agent claiming a sale they never worked. Affiliate networks explicitly ban it in their contracts because it drains revenue from legitimate marketers. Retailers like Nike and Nordstrom were reportedly among the affected parties here.
When Bloomberg first reported on Phia’s affiliate practices, the company’s spokesperson said the startup was only made aware of the issue when Bloomberg contacted them. Then, in early July, a spokesperson called it a bug. Now, Bloomberg’s follow-up reporting says it was a deliberately built feature that could be switched on and off. That’s not a bug. That’s a product decision.
The privacy angle here is also worth taking seriously. Phia has faced previous criticism for secretly collecting sensitive user data, including tracking behavior across the web and sending it back to company servers. That history matters. When a company is willing to quietly harvest user data and quietly inflate affiliate numbers, a pattern starts to form. Users of this app were not just potential victims of commission fraud happening in the background. They were also the raw material being tracked and monetized.
Phia launched in April 2024 as a kind of Google Flights for shopping, promising to find users the best prices across retailers. It was a clean pitch. But the business behind the pitch appears to have leaned hard into affiliate marketing in ways that raised serious red flags for investors and brand partners alike. Puck reported that Phia lost nearly half its full-time staff since the start of the year, and several brands didn’t even know they were listed on the app.
In a statement to TechCrunch, a Phia spokesperson said the company removed problematic features on July 7, is issuing transaction reversals to brand partners, and is hiring a head of compliance. The company says it will “learn from this.” That’s a phrase that sounds like accountability but commits to nothing specific. For users who trusted the app with their shopping behavior and personal data, learning from it is probably not enough.