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A comment on Bit.ly and Viglink Adding Affiliate Cookies on Shortened Links. Parent comment

Re:Bit.ly and Viglink Adding Affiliate Cookies on Shortened ... by eurleif on Thursday May 07, 2015 @06:50PM (#9508918)
I don't think it's really the same. The cookie stuffing case was about generating affiliate revenue from people who never actually clicked on a link to eBay. This is just about making non-affiliate Amazon links into affiliate links.

Also, Bitly and Pinterest probably got approval from Amazon for this scheme. Shawn Hogan misled eBay about what he was doing.

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Re:Bit.ly and Viglink Adding Affiliate Cookies on Shortened ... by downandout on Thursday May 07, 2015 @07:01PM (#9508982)
We have no idea if they received approval or not, but IMO the conduct is very similar. I also can't imagine that Amazon would say "sure, divert revenue from our affiliates into your own pockets without telling them". That sounds like an idea that any affiliate program manager would vehemently object to.
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