Bill Gates' daughter Phoebe Gates is facing fresh scrutiny after Bloomberg reported that she knew about a controversial revenue-boosting tactic on her shopping app Phia far earlier than she and the company had previously admitted. Internal Slack messages allegedly show Gates, 23, pushing engineers to deploy the feature as early as December 2025, contradicting earlier claims that she only learned of it last month when Bloomberg first raised the issue. Phia had described the practice as a "software bug" and removed it, but the new report suggests it was a deliberate strategy known to leadership, raising questions about transparency at the start-up she co-founded.

The practice, known as "cookie stuffing", involved dropping tracking cookies on users who merely opened the app or website without clicking any links, allowing Phia to claim commission on sales even when rival comparison services had actually referred the customer. This is barred by retail partners including Nike, Gap and Nordstrom, and reportedly generated 51% of Phia's revenue. Messages allegedly show Gates pressing an engineer in December over disappointing takings from Etsy and insisting automatic cookie drops were "SUPER core to rev", while her co-founder Sophia Kianni is said to have pushed for cookies to be triggered even when users tried to leave the app, despite being warned this breached compliance rules.