{"id":14373,"date":"2025-05-29T13:41:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T08:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=14373"},"modified":"2025-05-29T15:41:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T10:11:23","slug":"dark-patterns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/dark-patterns\/","title":{"rendered":"Dark Pattern"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Dark Patterns Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution recently instructed all e-commerce companies to conduct self-audits to analyse and eliminate dark patterns to comply with consumer protection regulations.<\/p>\n<h2>About Dark Patterns<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It refers to\u00a0<strong>any user interface<\/strong>\u00a0that has been\u00a0<strong>deliberately crafted to mislead\u00a0<\/strong>or\u00a0<strong>manipulate users into actions they might not otherwise take.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The term &#8220;dark pattern&#8221; was\u00a0<strong>coined in 2010\u00a0<\/strong>by UK-based\u00a0<strong>user experience designer Harry Brignull.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Dark patterns\u00a0<strong>exploit cognitive biases and psychological principles<\/strong>\u00a0to\u00a0<strong>influence user behavior.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>They can range from subtle and mildly misleading to overtly aggressive tactics.<\/li>\n<li>The practice is\u00a0<strong>seen across<\/strong>\u00a0a wide range of\u00a0<strong>sectors, from retail to travel, health to social media.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>One\u00a0<strong>frequent example<\/strong>\u00a0is the &#8220;<strong>sneak into basket&#8221; design<\/strong>, where\u00a0<strong>an additional item is quietly added to a user&#8217;s online shopping cart without explicit consent.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Another common tactic is presenting a large, brightly coloured &#8220;Accept&#8221; button for cookies or subscriptions, while hiding or minimising the &#8220;Reject&#8221; option.<\/li>\n<li>These interface choices are\u00a0<strong>not accidental,<\/strong>\u00a0they are\u00a0<strong>calculated to guide users towards choices that benefit the company<\/strong>, often\u00a0<strong>at the consumer&#8217;s expense.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Dark patterns can\u00a0<strong>also take the form of hidden costs\u00a0<\/strong>that\u00a0<strong>only appear at the final stage of checkout.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Regulation:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In many countries, including India, there is\u00a0<strong>no dedicated law that explicitly outlaws the practice.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>For instance,\u00a0<strong>under India&#8217;s Consumer Protection Act, 2019, unfair trade practices are prohibited<\/strong>\u00a0but\u00a0<strong>enforcement depends on proving that a pattern is deceptive, intentional,\u00a0<\/strong>and has<strong>\u00a0caused harm.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>This is<strong>\u00a0often difficult in digital contexts<\/strong>, where user interaction is rapid.<\/li>\n<li>In November 2023, the<strong>\u00a0Department of Consumer Affairs,<\/strong>\u00a0Government of India,\u00a0<strong>released guidelines for 13 dark patterns.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>According to these guidelines, the\u00a0<strong>use of any of these\u00a0<\/strong>prescribed dark patterns\u00a0<strong>amounts to a misleading advertisement,<\/strong>\u00a0an\u00a0<strong>unfair trade practice<\/strong>, or a violation of consumer rights.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Dark Patterns FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1:<\/strong>\u00a0What are dark patterns?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0It refers to any user interface that has been deliberately crafted to mislead or manipulate users into actions they might not otherwise take.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2:<\/strong>\u00a0What is a dark pattern example?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0Examples of dark patterns include: Misdirection: Highlighting irrelevant features to obscure critical details. Roach Motel: Making it easy to sign up but almost impossible to cancel.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q3:<\/strong>\u00a0Why is it difficult to enforce regulations against dark patterns in digital contexts?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0Proving deception, intent, and harm is challenging given rapid interactions.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/nation\/2025\/May\/29\/plans-to-counter-dark-patterns-used-by-online-platforms-soon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NIE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dark patterns are deceptive and manipulative user interface (UI) design techniques employed by websites, apps, and other digital platforms to trick or manipulate users.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":48723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[622,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-14373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-dark-patterns","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}