dark patterns | ResearchBuzz: Firehose

March 15, 2023

York University: Consumer Privacy Protection Act could lead to fines for deceptive designs in apps and websites

York University: Consumer Privacy Protection Act could lead to fines for deceptive designs in apps and websites. “Canada’s proposed Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA) prohibits online consent processes that are deceptive or misleading. Companies may face fines for breaking the act’s rules. This could be trouble for social media platforms, online shopping companies and other services that use deceptive user interface designs in their apps and websites.”

December 20, 2022

FTC: $245 million FTC settlement alleges Fortnite owner Epic Games used digital dark patterns to charge players for unwanted in-game purchases

FTC: $245 million FTC settlement alleges Fortnite owner Epic Games used digital dark patterns to charge players for unwanted in-game purchases. “How much money can a company take in by selling virtual costumes, dance moves, and piñatas shaped like llamas? It won’t surprise Fortnite fans to hear that the answer is billions, especially when, as the FTC alleges, Epic used a host of digital design tricks – dark patterns – to charge consumers for virtual merchandise without their express informed consent. What’s more, the FTC says when people disputed unauthorized charges with their credit card company, Epic locked their accounts, depriving them of access to content they had already paid for.”

Security & Legal Issues 0

September 20, 2022

FTC: FTC issues illuminating report on digital dark patterns

FTC: FTC issues illuminating report on digital dark patterns. “As the FTC’s 2021 workshop, Bringing Dark Patterns to Light, and recent academic literature establish, dark patterns take on a variety of nefarious guises – for example, hiding the full cost of a transaction behind nondescript dropdown arrows or small icons, sending people on a digital scavenger hunt just to cancel a subscription, using default settings to subvert their privacy choices, or even sneaking stuff into customers’ shopping carts without their knowledge.”

New Resources 0

July 2, 2022

TechCrunch: Amazon agrees to drop Prime cancellation ‘dark patterns’ in Europe

TechCrunch: Amazon agrees to drop Prime cancellation ‘dark patterns’ in Europe. “Amazon has agreed to simplify the process required for cancelling its Prime membership subscription service across its sites in the European Union, both on desktop and mobile interfaces, following a series of complaints from regional consumer protection groups. The coordinated complaints about Amazon’s confusing and convoluted cancellation process for Prime were announced back in April 2021 — so it’s taken just over a year for the e-commerce giant to agree to change its ways.”

Security & Legal Issues 0

June 20, 2022

NewsWise: Study: Design Tricks Commonly Used to Monetize Young Children’s App Use

NewsWise: Study: Design Tricks Commonly Used to Monetize Young Children’s App Use. “The majority of apps preschool-aged children use are designed to make money off their digital experiences, a new study suggests. And children whose parents had lower education were more likely to use apps incorporating manipulative methods that increase advertising exposure, such as by keeping them playing games longer or encouraging in-app purchases.”

Research & Opinion 0

March 26, 2022

TechCrunch: The Web Foundation is taking on deceptive design

TechCrunch: The Web Foundation is taking on deceptive design. “The Web Foundation‘s Tech Policy Design Lab is working on an interesting-looking project to counter deceptive design — aka dark patterns* — with the goal of producing a portfolio of UX and UI prototypes which it hopes to persuade tech companies to adopt and policymakers to be inspired by as they fashion rules to make the online experience less exploitative of web users.”

Around the Search & Social Media World 0

November 15, 2021

NiemanLab: The end of “click to subscribe, call to cancel”? One of the news industry’s favorite retention tactics is illegal, FTC says

NiemanLab: The end of “click to subscribe, call to cancel”? One of the news industry’s favorite retention tactics is illegal, FTC says. “A study of 526 news organizations in the United States found that only 41% make it easy for people to cancel subscriptions online, and more than half trained customer service reps in tactics to dissuade customers who call to unsubscribe. The Federal Trade Commission, meanwhile, recently made it clear that it sees the practice as 1) one of several ‘dark patterns that trick or trap consumers into subscriptions’ and 2) straight-up illegal. “

Security & Legal Issues 0

October 3, 2021

The Conversation: The rise of dark web design: how sites manipulate you into clicking

The Conversation: The rise of dark web design: how sites manipulate you into clicking. “Dark design has proven to be an incredibly effective way of encouraging web users to part with their time, money and privacy. This in turn has established ‘dark patterns’, or sets of practices designers know they can use to manipulate web users. They’re difficult to spot, but they’re increasingly prevalent in the websites and apps we use every day, creating products that are manipulative by design, much like the persistent, ever-present pop-ups we’re forced to close when we visit a new website.”

Security & Legal Issues 0

August 5, 2021

The Conversation: What are dark patterns, and how do they affect you?

The Conversation: What are dark patterns, and how do they affect you?. “Dark patterns are design elements that deliberately obscure, mislead, coerce and/or deceive website visitors into making unintended and possibly harmful choices. Dark patterns can be found in many kinds of sites and are used by several kinds of organizations. They take the form of deceptively labeled buttons, choices that are difficult to undo, and graphical elements like color and shading that direct users’ attention to or away from certain options.”

Security & Legal Issues 0

July 8, 2021

New York Times: Four States Start Inquiries Into Recurring Donation Tactics of Both Parties

New York Times: Four States Start Inquiries Into Recurring Donation Tactics of Both Parties. “Four state attorneys general have begun looking into the online fund-raising practices of both political parties, specifically seeking information about the use of prechecked boxes to enroll contributors in recurring donation programs that spurred a wave of fraud complaints and demands for refunds last year.”

Security & Legal Issues 0

May 18, 2021

The Guardian: Can you solve it? Are you smart enough to opt out of cookies?

The Guardian: Can you solve it? Are you smart enough to opt out of cookies?. “Today’s puzzles are taken from Terms & Conditions Apply, a free game in which you are bombarded with pop-ups and must get to the end without signing up to cookies, T&Cs, newsletters, or any other data-extraction device. The game is a send-up of the tricks used by websites to get you to things you don’t want to do, setting the player tasks including word challenges, logic puzzles, dexterity tests and optical illusions.”If you want a hair-pullingly frustrating game to show you the danger of dark patterns, look no further.

New Resources 0

May 6, 2021

New York Times: F.E.C. Asks Congress to Ban Prechecked Recurring Donation Boxes

New York Times: F.E.C. Asks Congress to Ban Prechecked Recurring Donation Boxes. “The Federal Election Commission voted unanimously on Thursday to recommend that Congress ban political campaigns from guiding donors by default into recurring contributions through prechecked boxes, a month after a New York Times investigation showed that former President Donald J. Trump’s political operation had steered huge numbers of unwitting supporters into repeated donations through that tactic.”

Security & Legal Issues 0

March 31, 2021

IEEE Spectrum: New Tool Strips Manipulative “Dark Patterns” From Mobile Apps

IEEE Spectrum: New Tool Strips Manipulative “Dark Patterns” From Mobile Apps. “The mobile apps we use every day are surprisingly manipulative. Subtle design tricks known as ‘dark patterns’ nudge us into doing what the app maker wants—be that buying products or continuing to scroll. But now, researchers are fighting back with a new tool that strips these unwanted features out of Android apps.”

Research & Opinion 0

January 18, 2021

EurekAlert: Can we be manipulated into sharing private info online? Yes, says Ben-Gurion U. study

EurekAlert: Can we be manipulated into sharing private info online? Yes, says Ben-Gurion U. study. “Online users are more likely to reveal private information based on how website forms are structured to elicit data, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have determined.”

Research & Opinion 0

July 30, 2020

Wired: How to Spot—and Avoid—Dark Patterns on the Web

Wired: How to Spot—and Avoid—Dark Patterns on the Web . “The term ‘dark patterns’ was first coined by UX specialist Harry Brignull to describe the ways in which software can subtly trick users into doing things they didn’t mean to do, or discouraging behavior that’s bad for the company. When you want to unsubscribe from a mailing list, but the ‘Unsubscribe’ button is tiny, low-contrast, and buried in paragraphs of text at the bottom of an email, it’s a strong sign the company is putting up subtle roadblocks between you and cancellation.”

Useful Stuff 0

York University: Consumer Privacy Protection Act could lead to fines for deceptive designs in apps and websites

FTC: $245 million FTC settlement alleges Fortnite owner Epic Games used digital dark patterns to charge players for unwanted in-game purchases

FTC: FTC issues illuminating report on digital dark patterns

TechCrunch: Amazon agrees to drop Prime cancellation ‘dark patterns’ in Europe

NewsWise: Study: Design Tricks Commonly Used to Monetize Young Children’s App Use

NiemanLab: The end of “click to subscribe, call to cancel”? One of the news industry’s favorite retention tactics is illegal, FTC says

The Conversation: The rise of dark web design: how sites manipulate you into clicking

The Conversation: What are dark patterns, and how do they affect you?

New York Times: Four States Start Inquiries Into Recurring Donation Tactics of Both Parties

The Guardian: Can you solve it? Are you smart enough to opt out of cookies?

New York Times: F.E.C. Asks Congress to Ban Prechecked Recurring Donation Boxes

IEEE Spectrum: New Tool Strips Manipulative “Dark Patterns” From Mobile Apps

EurekAlert: Can we be manipulated into sharing private info online? Yes, says Ben-Gurion U. study

Wired: How to Spot—and Avoid—Dark Patterns on the Web

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