Motorola has acknowledged that some of its phones were secretly routing users through an affiliate tracking website before opening the Amazon Shopping app, calling the behavior “unintended” and saying it has been “promptly corrected.”
The issue, first reported by 9to5Google after being spotted by a Reddit user, caused affected phones to briefly open the device’s browser before landing in the Amazon app. During that split-second detour, users were sent to a website linked to fashion influencer Kira Abboud — though the URL did not appear on any of her other pages. The visit was enough to install a tracking cookie that attached an affiliate code to the user’s shopping session, potentially allowing whoever placed it to earn a small percentage of any purchases made.
Allison Yi, Motorola’s executive director of product management, attributed the redirect to “an app search and suggestion experience for the Moto App Launcher” co-developed with a company called Device Native. Reddit user Trypocopris had identified Device Native’s website as being queried behind the scenes before users were sent to the Abboud-linked domain. Device Native describes itself as delivering “personalized, on-device mobile ad serving without sharing user data.” A public documentation page detailing its Motorola integration was taken offline shortly after the story broke, though not before the Internet Archive preserved a copy.
Motorola did not explain how the redirect was introduced or whether Device Native was directly responsible. “Upon identifying the issue, we promptly corrected the routing configuration. Users can now expect all installed apps to launch directly as intended,” Yi told The Verge in a statement published in May 2026. The company added that it “takes user experience, privacy, and platform integrity seriously.”
The affiliate code would not have affected prices paid by users, but the covert installation of tracking cookies without disclosure raises questions about transparency. The redirect affected users in the US.
Source: The Verge