I'd like to clarify a few points on the Fudge[.]ai app, if you dont know what this is or whats going on, look below. All original posts linked here!
First and foremost, under NO circumstance will myself or
@igobylukas directly reveal the personal information on the Fudge team. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to require this info.
To add some more context that answers various questions I have received:
1. Was Polysleep the only storefront tested? No, 8 storefronts were tested and all contained the code we discovered and publicized.
2. Was Fudge intentionally trying to harm merchants? I have no idea, the same way I cannot read your mind. Regardless of intent, it was proven to be hurting merchants, there are merchants that were unaware of what was going on. The Fudge team seems to be misinformed on some practices, the impact of said practices, and has backtracked on multiple explanations. However, I do understand from the findings that it can be inferred and do not disagree with the claims made.
3. Was Fudge faking RUM data? I cannot confirm nor deny this, while I have seen RUM data faked before I do not believe it was explicitly targeted. It was a side effect of the optimization technique used that these metrics were also increased without a clear improvement to the UX in various areas.
4. Have you talked to the Fudge team? Yes, I have had two conversations with them. The story/explanation has changed in each. I will not debunk or recall any research released.
5. Why was Fudge investigated? I along with a few members at Proton,
@igobylukas, and
@keshav___anand are reviewing dozens of apps on the store. Fudge was next in line for review.
6. Are you being paid to investigate these apps and infer results? Absolutely not, this research is being done for the better of the Shopify ecosystem. Proton has invested almost $10k in the past week to deep-dive these apps including the personal after-hours time. I will be continuing to invest in this research and have allocated $40k for continued investigation into dozens of apps for the remainder of Q4.
Ultimately, I do not care who you are, who you know, or what your intent is. If you are negatively impacting merchants in a measurable way I will find it and I will call it out. It is up to the merchant to determine if there is a worthy trade-off, it is not up to you or me. I am still in the process of recording a deep dive into their code but it is Cyber week people, take a look at it yourself. If you do not trust what was said in the initial video you will not trust what is said in the deep-dive, it's that simple.