Phia, a shopping app, powered by Phoebe Gates23-year-old daughter bill gatesfaces accusations of improperly claiming credit for online sales it did not facilitate.
An AI-powered browser extension allegedly logged so-called “fake clicks” on a retail website, Bloomberg reported, later claiming the company didn’t actually generate a commission on the sales. Phia has now fixed this issue and is said to have integrated it into the shopping platform’s source code in December.
What is the Fiya App?
Phia is an app designed to help shoppers maximize their spending by comparing prices on clothing and accessories on more than 40,000 retail and resale sites.
The startup operates on an affiliate revenue model, with Phia earning a commission on any sales made through its browser extension.
When a user finds clothing or products through Phia’s app And for purchases made through affiliate links, Phia receives a percentage of the sale.
Within a week of its launch, Phia ranked 21st on the App Store, with a cumulative download count of 20,000 times. Three months later, the total number of downloads exceeded 370,000.
As of September 2025, Phia has been downloaded more than 500,000 times and has received $8 million in funding. Last January, the company raised another $35 million in funding, valuing the company at $185 million just a year after launch.
Here’s what probing on the Phia app reveals
However, an investigation by Bloomberg, Capital One Shopping and independent researcher Ben Edelman revealed that Phia’s app opened backend tabs without users’ consent and inserted its own referral code during the checkout process.
Phia engaged in so-called “cookie stuffing” or attribution fraud by logging “fake clicks” on retailer websites, which allowed it to replace another referrer’s unique code with its own code, thereby claiming commissions on sales it had not legitimately earned.
The campaign was widely seen as violating the policies of numerous digital platforms. Prominent affiliate network Impact.com notified Bloomberg that it had suspended Phia’s account after discovering behavior in her extension that was “inconsistent with our platform policies.”
A spokesman for Fiya said
A representative for Phia confirmed the issue and informed Bloomberg that it had been corrected.
“Over the past 24 hours, we became aware that in a recent release, our codebase was causing misattribution for some users,” the statement noted, noting that the source code was integrated into Phia’s platform in December.
They further stated that after being notified, their team worked through the night to identify and resolve the issue, which has now been resolved.
The company further said that Phia undergoes regular audits by its affiliate network partners and “maintains compliance at all times.” The researchers subsequently retested Phia’s browser extension in July and confirmed that it no longer automatically fetched referral clicks.
Gates is the youngest daughter of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his former spouse Melinda France Gates. She launched Phia in April 2025 with co-founder and former Stanford roommate Sophia Kianni.
