{
  "id": 759844,
  "title": "Phoebe Gates reportedly knew shopping app Phia was stealing affiliate credit for months",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/13/phoebe-gates-reportedly-knew-shopping-app-phia-was-stealing-affiliate",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-08-13T11:30:32.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Quartz",
    "slug": "quartz",
    "url": "https://qz.com/phia-phoebe-gates-sophia-kianni-cookie-stuffing-081326"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, co-founders of shopping app Phia, were aware of a practice where the app took credit for sales it didn't drive, according to internal communications. Slack messages show they knew about this as far back as December, contradicting the company's public statements.\n\nThe app, which bills itself as a \"personal shopping assistant\", earns commissions from retailers when users make purchases through its browser extension. However, the extension was also designed to report that Phia drove sales even when it wasn't used, resulting in increased commissions.\n\nAccording to Fortune, Phia's public remarks claimed they only became aware of the situation \"within the last 24 hours\" on July 8, but this timeline conflicts with the internal messages. The company has not publicly commented on the discrepancy.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Bloomberg",
        "title": "Phoebe Gates Knew Phia App Took Credit For Sales It Didn’t Drive",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/11/phoebe-gates-knew-phia-app-took-credit-for-sales-it-didnt-drive",
        "published": "2026-08-11T20:07:34.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Fortune",
        "title": "Phoebe Gates knew Phia shopping app took credit for sales it didn’t drive",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/12/phoebe-gates-knew-phia-shopping-app-took-credit-for-sales-it-didnt",
        "published": "2026-08-12T14:56:43.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}