'Vogue' YouTube video accidentally links out to internal revenue doc: 'Why are they, a multi-billion dollar company, using Google Sheets?'
Vogue‘s “Beauty Secrets” YouTube series is one of the publisher’s most popular forays into video-first content. The videos, which feature celebrities doing their skin care, makeup and wellness routines while informally talking directly into the camera, rack up hundreds of thousands of views. Out of the brand’s 10 top-performing YouTube videos, three of them are “Beauty Secrets.”
There are a lot of eyes on these videos, which is why when TikTok user Maya Basra was clicking around on one, she was stunned to have opened up what looked like an internal Vogue document tracking the YouTube commissions.
“I was watching Vogue ‘Beauty Secrets’ and I clicked a link and it, I think, just took me to Vogue ‘Beauty Secrets’ revenue page,” she said. “I can see their YouTube commissions. I have a whole Google Doc. I’m confused.”
Basra wasn’t sure if this information was open to the public and she didn’t know or if someone had made a mistake.
“I’m just wondering if I got this on accident or if everyone is seeing this,” she continued. “Maybe this is just a new thing they’re doing. But I think this might have been an accident.”
Another TikTok commenter alleged that the link had been on Little Mix singer Leigh-Anne Pinnock’s video, which was uploaded on Aug. 2. The link, if it was somewhere on that video, has been removed — although not before other TikTok users and Redditors got their hands on it first. One Redditor also noted that the spreadsheet link they were using had also been made private, meaning anyone who did grab the link in time no longer has access.
“The question is why are they, a multi-billion dollar company, using Google Sheets without any kind of additional security measures?” a Redditor wrote in response. “Just dumbfounded.”
Another Reddit user claimed to work at a global fashion company and argued it’s “very low tech.”
“An accident like this could have happened easily,” they alleged.
The spreadsheet seemed to be broken down by each celebrity video with a list of the products used and then how much money Vogue made from viewers clicking on the links and buying the items.
In the caption and top pinned comment of every “Beauty Secrets” video, Vogue includes a list of the products mentioned by the celebrity, as well as a list of “Beauty Secrets favorites.” Vogue also notes that purchasing through the given links gives the publication an affiliate commission.
Some commenters on Barsa’s TikTok and beauty enthusiasts on Reddit seemed surprised by the overall numbers.
“I worked in digital marketing for a while and affiliate/influencer marketing really isn’t the obvious cash cow everyone makes it out to be,” one person explained on Reddit. “You have to remember these videos are just one of MANY MANY MANY digital marketing sources Vogue is pulling from, and they are a content FARM. It’s a numbers game.”
Other brands’ confidentiality blunders
Vogue is by no means the first publication to deal with human error in a public-facing way. Marketing experts argue that businesses should be utilizing social media with consumers more than ever wanting to be able to interact with their favorite brands in some way.
But sometimes, it doesn’t work.
In April, Samsung employees who were using ChatGPT for help at work accidentally leaked confidential internal information. One employee copied and pasted source code into ChatGPT to check for errors; another one uploaded an entire meeting recording to convert it into notes for a presentation. Now ChatGPT has that information, as its user guide explicitly warns against sharing sensitive information in conversations.
In The Know by Yahoo is now available on Apple News — follow us here!
The post TikToker watching ‘Vogue’ YouTube channel unintentionally gains access to internal revenue spreadsheet appeared first on In The Know.
More from In The Know:
What is 'beauty tourism'? TikToker travels over 6,000 miles for hair extensions
