Centre to issue norms against ‘dark patterns’ in online ads

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in news?
• What are Dark Patterns?
• Some major types of Dark Patterns:
• How do companies use dark patterns?
• What do users stand to lose because of dark patterns?

 

Why in news?

• The Union Consumer Affairs Ministry is concerned about the increasing dark patterns of misleading advertisements that use tactics like false urgency, confirm-shaming, forced action, subscription traps, and nagging.
• To tackle this issue, they plan to release clear guidelines to regulate these practices.
• The ministry has also urged the consumers to flag such manipulative online practices on the National Consumer Helpline by calling ‘1915’ or through a WhatsApp message to 8800001915.

 

What are Dark Patterns?

• Dark patterns refer to deceptive design techniques used in user interfaces to manipulate or deceive users into taking certain actions or making specific choices online.
• Such patterns are unethical user interface designs that deliberately make Internet experience harder or even exploit the users.
• These patterns exploit cognitive biases and behavioural tendencies to trick or mislead users, often for the benefit of the platform or business implementing them.
• These tricks can include creating a false sense of urgency, making people feel bad for not doing something, forcing them to take certain actions, trapping them into subscriptions, or constantly bothering them.

 

Some major types of Dark Patterns:

• Urgency: This tactic creates a sense of urgency or scarcity to pressure consumers into making a purchase or taking an action.
• Basket Sneaking: Websites or apps use dark patterns to add additional products or services to the shopping cart without user consent.
• Confirm Shaming: It involves guilt as a way to make consumers adhere. It criticizes or attack consumers for not conforming to a particular belief or viewpoint.
• Forced Action: This involves forcing consumers into taking an action they may not want to take, such as signing up for a service in order to access content.
• Nagging: It refers to persistent, repetitive and annoyingly constant criticism, complaints, requests for action.
• Subscription Traps: This tactic makes it easy for consumers to sign up for a service but difficult for them to cancel it, often by hiding the cancellation option or requiring multiple steps.
• Interface Interference: This tactic involves making it difficult for consumers to take certain actions, such as canceling a subscription or deleting an account.
• Bait and Switch: This involves advertising one product or service but delivering another, often of lower quality.
• Hidden Costs: This tactic involves hiding additional costs from consumers until they are already committed to making a purchase.
• Disguised Ads: Disguised ads are advertisements that are designed to look like other types of content, such as news articles or user-generated content.

 

How do companies use dark patterns?

• Social media companies and Big Tech firms such as Apple, Amazon, Skype, Facebook, LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Google use dark or deceptive patterns to downgrade the user experience to their advantage.
• Amazon
  • It came under fire in the EU for its confusing, multi-step cancellation process for the Amazon Prime subscription.
• Google-owned YouTube
  • It nudges users to sign up for YouTube Premium with pop-ups, obscuring the final seconds of a video with thumbnails of other videos.
    • This is being viewed as a way of disrupting what should have been an otherwise smooth user experience.
• LinkedIn
  • LinkedIn users often receive unsolicited, sponsored messages from influencers.
  • Disabling this option is a difficult process with multiple steps that requires users to be familiar with the platform controls.

 

What do users stand to lose because of dark patterns?

• Lack of Transparency:
  • Dark patterns can obscure important information, making it difficult for users to fully understand the implications of their actions.
  • This can lead to uninformed decision-making and potential financial or privacy risks.
• Reduced Autonomy:
  • It manipulates user behaviour, limiting their freedom of choice.
  • Users may feel coerced or pressured into making decisions they wouldn't have otherwise made, leading to buyer's remorse or dissatisfaction.
• Privacy Concerns:
  • Some dark patterns may manipulate users into sharing more personal data than they intended or agreeing to privacy settings that compromise their confidentiality.
  • This can have implications for data security and expose users to potential privacy breaches.
• Negative User Experience:
  • Dark patterns often create frustrating and confusing experiences for users.
  • They may feel deceived or manipulated, leading to a loss of trust in the platform or brand and a diminished overall user experience.

 

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Q1) What is basket sneaking?

Sneaking products into users' shopping baskets is a dark pattern that tricks people into purchasing more than they intended to do. For this very reason, the European Commission illegalized this design pattern under the consumer rights directive.

 

Q2) What is confirm shaming?

Confirm shaming is a term that refers to a manipulative tactic used in user interface (UI) design or online interactions. It involves using guilt or social pressure to influence a user's decision when presented with a choice, particularly when dealing with consent or privacy-related options. In the context of online interactions, confirm shaming typically occurs when a website or application presents a user with a choice, such as opting out of email subscriptions, declining to provide personal information, or refusing to consent to terms and conditions. Instead of simply providing a straightforward option to decline or opt-out, confirm shaming employs emotionally manipulative language or design elements to make the user feel guilty or embarrassed for choosing not to comply.

 

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Source: Centre to issue norms against ‘dark patterns’ in online ads | PIB | The Hindu