--- title: Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni reportedly knew Phia was... description: Phia, the shopping startup co-founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, faces renewed scrutiny after Bloomberg's latest reporting reveals that the founders... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/phoebe-gates-and-sophia-kianni-reportedly-knew-phia-was-cookie-stuffing-for-months-javncd0cc twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni reportedly knew Phia was ‘cookie stuffing’ for months | daily.dev og:description: Phia, the shopping startup co-founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, faces renewed scrutiny after Bloomberg's latest reporting reveals that the founders... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/phoebe-gates-and-sophia-kianni-reportedly-knew-phia-was-cookie-stuffing-for-months-javncd0cc og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/JAvNCD0CC.png og:image:alt: Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni reportedly knew Phia was ‘cookie stuffing’ for months og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni reportedly knew Phia was ‘cookie stuffing’ for months **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Phia, the shopping startup co-founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, faces renewed scrutiny after Bloomberg's latest reporting reveals that the founders were aware of the company's cookie stuffing practices as far back as December — contradicting earlier claims that they only learned of the issue when Bloomberg first reached out. Leaked Slack messages show Gates and Kianni discussing cookie stuffing with executives and engineers, and the practice was reportedly a deliberately built feature that could be toggled on and off, not a bug as previously claimed. Cookie stuffing made up a significant portion of Phia's revenue, and the company saw a notable drop in daily revenue after stopping it. Affected retailers include Nike and Nordstrom. Phia has also faced prior controversies including secretly collecting sensitive user data and losing nearly half its full-time staff. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is cookie stuffing and why is it illegal or banned in affiliate marketing? Cookie stuffing is the practice of taking affiliate credit and commission for purchases a platform did not actually help generate. It is widely banned in affiliate marketing contracts because it unfairly diverts referral revenue away from legitimate affiliate marketers. It can expose companies to lawsuits, and platforms that engage in it typically violate the terms of the affiliate agreements they sign with marketplaces. _Affiliate marketers and startup founders navigating compliance risks track cases like Phia's on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Phia accused of ‘cookie stuffing,’ taking affiliate credit on purchases it didn’t earn](https://daily.dev/posts/phia-accused-of-cookie-stuffing-taking-affiliate-credit-on-purchases-it-didn-t-earn-grenrdwbh) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni’s Phia raises $35M to ‘make shopping fun again’](https://daily.dev/posts/phoebe-gates-and-sophia-kianni-s-phia-raises-35m-to-make-shopping-fun-again--ci1ty4cl6) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Phia's founders on how AI is changing online shopping](https://daily.dev/posts/phia-s-founders-on-how-ai-is-changing-online-shopping-582bwjkv9) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [HubSpot backs down over using customer data for AI](https://daily.dev/posts/hubspot-backs-down-over-using-customer-data-for-ai-qsirok4dg) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#startup](https://daily.dev/tags/startup) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/phoebe-gates-and-sophia-kianni-reportedly-knew-phia-was-cookie-stuffing-for-months-javncd0cc) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni reportedly knew Phia was ‘cookie stuffing’ for months","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/phoebe-gates-and-sophia-kianni-reportedly-knew-phia-was-cookie-stuffing-for-months-javncd0cc","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/phoebe-gates-and-sophia-kianni-reportedly-knew-phia-was-cookie-stuffing-for-months-javncd0cc"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T21:44:43.671Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T21:45:08.518Z","description":"Phia, the shopping startup co-founded by Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni, faces renewed scrutiny after Bloomberg's latest reporting reveals that the founders...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/ab0a3667308cc03a800f41c5931f3fcc?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/ab0a3667308cc03a800f41c5931f3fcc?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCrunch","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCrunch","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tc","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/phoebe-gates-and-sophia-kianni-reportedly-knew-phia-was-cookie-stuffing-for-months-javncd0cc","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"startup","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCrunch","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni reportedly knew Phia was ‘cookie stuffing’ for months"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/phoebe-gates-and-sophia-kianni-reportedly-knew-phia-was-cookie-stuffing-for-months-javncd0cc#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is cookie stuffing and why is it illegal or banned in affiliate marketing?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Cookie stuffing is the practice of taking affiliate credit and commission for purchases a platform did not actually help generate. 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