I haven't heard of Honey recruiting computers into a DDOS-for-hire botnet, or providing remote desktop access to an attacker, or stealing financial details and draining bank accounts, or bricking computers on purpose, or encrypting files and holding them for random. Are you sure there's no difference and they literally do the same thing?

At the same time, I've not heard of a virus stealing referrals, but I wouldn't be surprised there. Just seems really uncommon among malware, compared to all the other stuff malware does and Honey doesn't.

Honestly, I thought everybody understood referrals are how "free" coupon sites and coupon extensions got their money to continue existing. Did folks think that Honey was spending that money, building that product and infrastructure, out of the goodness of their hearts, rather than as part of a business?

It seems like the only reason this extension out of many is getting attention, is because some rich internet video stars took money to promote it and regret doing so because it ended up making them less money than they hoped. No caring about their fans (for example, educating them, "don't install coupon extensions, they're usually spyware"), I guess because that's less profitable than exploiting them for $$$