Think you can tell a dark pattern from an ethically designed prompt? By Alfred Ng and Sam Morris In January 2018, Kelly Ross, a mother of three in Washington, D.C., saw a charge from the children’s education app, ABCmouse, which her kids hadn’t used for nearly four years. She thought she had canceled her subscription and called the company asking why she’d received a bill for about $50. She remembered the company responded that she should have read the fine print. It wasn’t until Ross called the company out on Twitter that she got a refund, but the experience still frustrates her years later. “I felt duped in some way because behind the scenes of this wholesome image in this company, they use these deceptive practices,” Ross said. “It should have been more straight-up to be able to cancel it and be done and not have my information on file.” Ross had stumbled across a dark pattern—design choices that steer people into decisions they may not have made under normal conditions. They can take the form of a visual cue like a subscribe button that’s much larger than an opt-out button, or hidden information on pages that people don’t read. Last September, over its automatic subscription renewals for customers who signed up under a free trial. The company paid out refunds to more than . ABCmouse reached a $10 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission 200,000 people “The facts do not support the FTC’s broad claims, and the vast majority of ABCmouse customers are highly satisfied with their memberships,” Kathryn Green, a senior director of communications for ABCmouse’s parent company, Age of Learning, said in an email. “While we cannot comment on litigation, we want every family to have a great experience with ABCmouse and regret any confusion that any subscriber may have had.” The FTC’s actions come amid growing concerns about dark patterns. The FTC held a , and Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a Democrat from Delaware, have said they intend to reintroduce the to regulate dark patterns. workshop on the practice in April DETOUR Act Tech giants are also facing legal challenges over dark patterns. In January, after Amazon of making it too difficult for Prime members to cancel their subscriptions, filed a legal complaint with Norway’s consumer protection authority, while the U.S. consumer advocacy group Public Citizen requested that the FTC investigate Amazon’s dark patterns for maintaining subscriptions. In 2015, LinkedIn in which it collected new users’ email contacts through deceptive design. The faces an ongoing federal lawsuit in the Southern District of New York by a group of consumers who claim they were automatically enrolled into pricey plans. researchers accused the Norwegian Consumer Council settled a lawsuit for $13 million over dark patterns weight loss app Noom “Customer trust is at the heart of all of our products and services and we strongly disagree with any claim that our cancellation process creates uncertainty,” Amazon spokesperson Jena Boehnke said in an emailed statement. LinkedIn spokesperson Leonna Spilman said in an emailed statement that the company works to help members understand how they can manage their information. “Responsible design is a well-established principle at LinkedIn that has informed our engineering and product development process for years,” she said. Noom didn’t respond to a request for comment. In March, California passed a law banning dark patterns, but only for from the state’s data privacy law. interfaces related to opting out of data collection Harry Brignull, who coined the term back in 2010, said dark patterns have gotten worse. “I’d hope by naming and shaming these companies and bringing it to light, it would somehow magically make it go away,” Brignull said. “I thought there would be less dark patterns 10 years later. In fact, now, there’s way more than ever before.” He now runs to crowdsource and call out submitted dark patterns. DarkPatterns.org 1 of 6 While shopping you see the following prompt. Which figure has a dark pattern? Figure 1 is the unethical pattern. It is an example of Confirm Shaming. is where the prompts try to sway you into making a certain choice by framing the alternatives as a bad decision rather than having them on an equal playing field. Confirm Shaming In the “ ” study researchers found that confirm shaming had a 19.6% success rate at getting people to select the options that benefited the designers. Shining a Light on Dark Patterns 2 of 6 A messenger app you recently installed asks you if you'd like to share your contacts to find friends using the service. Which figure has a dark pattern? Figure 2 is the . It is an example of unethical design Nagging is where the designer requests something but doesn’t allow the user to permanently deny the request. Nagging The “ ” study found that “Nagging” was the most common dark pattern and was present in more than half of the 240 apps the researchers looked at. Dark Patterns and Where to Find Them 3 of 6 To cancel a monthly subscription, you visit the account settings page. Which figure has a dark pattern? Figure 2 is the It is an example of Dark Pattern. Hard to Cancel is where canceling a service is more difficult than signing up for it. Hard to Cancel This is sometimes referred to as a “Roach Motel” dark pattern because the traps are easy for bugs to enter but difficult to exit. Several companies have been sued over this dark pattern, including and . ABCmouse the weight loss app Noom 4 of 6 You're trying to cancel a membership, and the following prompt appears. Which figure has a dark pattern? Figure 1 is the It is an example of a Dark Pattern. Trick Question are when the language is ambiguous, making it harder to choose what you actually want. Trick Questions Researchers found in the “ ” study that trick questions were one of the most effective types of dark patterns. Shining a Light on Dark Patterns 5 of 6 You purchase a new TV online and go to the check-out page. Which figure has a dark pattern? Figure 1 is the . It is an example of Dark Pattern Sneak into Basket is when items are automatically added into your shopping cart. Sneak into Basket These dark patterns take advantage default settings, and advocates argue the practice should be outlawed. “There are some obvious things that need to stop. You should never be able to sneak things into people’s baskets,” Harry Brignull, the founder of , said. DarkPatterns.org 6 of 6 You visit a free website for book reviews to get an opinion on a newly released novel. Which figure has a dark pattern? Figure 1 is the . It is an example of Dark Pattern Forced Enrollment is when you’re required to make an account to use a service. Forced Enrollment Researchers classify Forced Enrollment as an “asymmetric” type of dark pattern, where the choices that you have are not equal to the choices the designers have. Originally published as " “ with the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license Dark Patterns that Mislead Consumers Are All Over the Internet

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We Ought to Get Better at Recognizing Dark Patterns

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