Although it's arguable whether this was on purpose or not, it is likely to have driven ad revenue from accidental clicks.
This coursera course looks free, which tempts users to register. Once they have registered, the website reveals that the course is not free.
Discount Tire Unsubscribe Dark Pattern? Here is default view.
Qualitative evaluation of the consent-obtaining mechanisms implemented and used by the five big tech companies, i.e. Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft (GAFAM)
The New Yorker's consent preferences are unclear. The option for ‘Do Not Sell My Personal Information’ appears to be on, implying the user has selected not to have their information sold, but the instructions say to move it to the left to turn it off. This is confusing.
Udemy Course Dark Pattern for Price Discount, Happened on multiple courses as soon as I clicked buy now or log in it would go back to the original price, I heard they were stealing professors lectures as well and not compensating them or dealing with copyright well either.
Ryanair's text for subscribing to their mailing list says 'If you don't wish to receive these offers, please opt-out' but the tick box is checked by default. This is confusing for the user - do they need to leave the box checked, or uncheck, to opt out?
Tried out @yousician, but sadly hit right away with @darkpatterns. Tap "Start with free trial" (primes me that I'm not committing to anything yet), give finger ID (almost an habitual thing, as it's required for free apps too) and you just signed up to a 145 USD/y plan.
Look at this misleading crap from
@CondeNast. The switch labeled "do not sell my personal info" actually needs to be switched to OFF to keep info private, only explained in the small print. And even though I clicked "do not sell" to get this popup, it's set to ON by default!
I've received an email from @netflix asking me to "finalise the signup" when I don't remember registering. Worried about the identity theft etc went to a chat & discovered this is a "PROMOTIONAL EMAIL".
Dark #UX pattern spotted on @yahoomail - ads are styled to look like unread emails, making it too easy for users to accidentally click on the ad and drive revenue to Yahoo and their advertisers.
When you press the menu icon the result seems to randomly switch between displaying the full menu where you can choose to open the song in Spotify, save it, or share it, and the Apple Music only pop-up. Sometimes you can press it multiple times & get only one result or the other.
@nntaleb Just saw this today. Tesla refunds in general should be easy to get electronically & certainly through customer service. Will he addressed.
Elon @elonmusk, your Customer Support at Tesla is even worse than I claimed last time. It is an insult to your customers.
On the @NewYorker's site, there's a cookie setting literally called "Sell My Personal Information". If you disable it, it will auto-enable itself when you use the CTA to close the window! Absolutely egregious disregard for ethical UX.
I hate stuff like this, came across this one recently on @WishShopping. Also important to note, this only, modal comes up after you submit a form of checkboxes, where the last box resubscribes you to a weekly drip campaign
So, @outlook/@Microsoft wants me to manually un-check like 100 companies if I don't want them collecting my data... #privacy
Very @darkpatterns example by @Microsoft? What are my options here? "Accept optional data..." as opposed to "Yes send optional data...". I wish not to send anything. Which option should I choose?
Plusnet with their intentionally confusing language.
After hunting down the tiny link I was sure I had cancelled my @LinkedIn premium subscription last month. Turns out they switch the primary and secondary button so at a glance you think you are performing the opposite action
WTF @ICICIBank, why would I need life cover while transferring funds to a friend!
Trying to unsubscribe from @Yahoo/@verizonmedia
Facebook makes it hard for users to leave facebook via their browser's back button.
That Facebook and its #UX#darkpattern When you are on the web, it shows you a message that does not exist to download the messaging app, Hook Model in action.
Google hiding the ability to say no thanks only if you scroll down. Not immediately obvious that you can
A signup window for ClickUp says: 'Save 26 days per year. We analyzed the time saved by over 4,000 teams after switching to ClickUp. That's 624 hours back!' Underneath, the button for not signing up is labelled 'No, I want to waste 26 days'
Hey @RevolutApp. What's with the confusing, blatant dark pattern messaging here when I go to toggle targeted marketing? Why MUST you be so sneaky? Why? Why?
Check out this gem. Change in standard answer, followed by double negative content.
Textbook example of @darkpatterns in Europe: @BogdanCovrig & I visited this webshop from three different browsers & they seem to personalize their timers to the specific browser call. No math.random(), but still curious. Days don’t change, just minutes & seconds.
Amazon makes you click Into "Advanced Controls", move past a bunch of options of which none is $0.00, and then search for a plaintext link just to cancel your subscription.
iPhone users are nagged to sign up to Apple Pay
stop making people jump through the hoop! make these processes simple and straightforward!
"Many streaming customers are unaware that the sitcom titles they prefer, the ads they do not skip, their email addresses and the serial numbers identifying the devices they use are being harvested and distributed."
See this #darkpattern all the time in cookie banners: the primary action is not 'confirm', but 'select + confirm all'
One of the worst @darkpatterns I ever came across: Press allow notifications to verify that you are not a robot. When you decline it even redirects you to a different subdomain and asks you again.
Dark Pattern Games is a review site that analyses the Dark Patterns used by different games. It has a voting system and is meticulously put together.
One of the many reasons I’m leaving
@EE - pulling @darkpatterns like this. Go to buy more data (extortionately priced), choose “One-off” and a pop-up appears with “Monthly Recurring” as the prominent, highlighted option. Now I have to waste my time working out how to cancel…
In this series of in-depth articles, Investigative journalist Justin Elliott looks into the various manipulative and deceptive techniques that Intuit allegedly used in their Turbotax software.
Ok this is really funny, check this out. I was in the process of booking a flight via @OneTravel. Trying to make me book ASAP, they claimed: "38 people are looking at this flight". Whoa
This #darkpattern pops up from time to time in the @Citi @Citibank mobile app. There's no way to dismiss the initial pop up, and when you try to say No Thanks on the next screen, you must confirm you're not interested.
On log in, you either accept marketing emails or cancel which logs you out. No way to opt out here. That’s not good UX
@Gumtree #darkpattern
"Add smart TVs to the growing list of home appliances guilty of surveilling people’s movements. A new study from Princeton University shows internet-connected TVs, which allow people to stream Netflix and Hulu, are loaded with data-hungry trackers."
Some more #darkpatterns here, by LinkedIn. You can either sync, or postpone for later.
Here’s a ridiculous example of a deceptive dark pattern. Looks like advertising and analytics cookies are off by default, but the red button actually turns them on. You have to click «more options» to keep it disabled.
@Touchnote has this gem on their pricing comparison page. One option is marked as "best value". The selected item promises $19.80 of savings. But...they are all the same price?
Hello @IKEAUK, this is from your self-service POS terminal. I don’t want to enter my post code, where am I supposed to press ‘No Thanks’ ?
You know what @NDTVFood, this doesn't give the greatest impression of your site.
check out this cursed shit i found on this site. it tells you to allow notifications to verify if your a human with a fake captcha. i only have seen the beyond burger site do this.
in Eventbrite's last step when you register for tickets. 'Go To My Tickets' not only signs you up for email marketing but it's already opt-in for you. Sneaky + interfering the interface.
Shame on @Quora for implementing a dark pattern that forces me to download their app without an option to exit this horrible popup
Example of @darkpatterns. The page I wanted to view is hidden by an overlay asking permission to show a popup. I don't want that, but my only options are 'yes' and 'not now, maybe later'. Where is the 'no', @buienradar?
Nice @darkpatterns here @meteofrance: “j'accepte” doesn't save the current settings, it turns everything on and exits. To keep the selected settings you have to chose “je valide mes choix”
Hey @Grammarly, kinda shitty UX trying to hide the button to cancel my subscription.
Trying to unsubscribe, so which option is colored, buttonized, front and center? Cancel, of course.
What a mischievous technique to trick people into giving in all the data by accidentally clicking the wrong click of action.
@darkpatterns on this danish Website.
It says: You will also recieve our newsletter. Easy to unsubscribe. It has a checkbox that says: Okay, i understand. And if not checked, a warning appears forcing you to check it. Bad impression in the first 2 minutes.
The check-in process in @vueling hiding so many @darkpatterns to fool the passengers taking services we don't want as 'prioritary boarding
Yet another example of @darkpatterns, this time found on @coursera. You cannot just decline, it's "now" or "later"...
CBS makes it exceptionally difficult for users to cancel their premium subscription.
Hey @contactsplus you’re joining the
@darkpatterns army!
Today @googlenews joined the ranks of "Sites that don't want you to use ad-blockers/privacy tools & just tell you that you're offline if you do" (along with @TheAtlantic) I'm fine with "Turn off your ad-blocker to use this site," less so with lying.
Deleting your TripAdvisor account? It's more complex than destroying a ring
Did you notice that "back" button that looks like a submit one? Well it took me 3 times to realize I was always going backwards instead of deleting my account
"This article provides the first public evidence of the power of dark patterns. It discusses the results of the authors’ large-scale experiment in which a representative sample of American consumers were randomly assigned to a control group, a group that was exposed to mild dark patterns, or a group that was exposed to aggressive dark patterns. All groups were told they had been automatically enrolled in an identity theft protection plan, and the experimental manipulation varied what acts were necessary for consumers to decline the plan. Users in the mild dark pattern condition were more than twice as likely to remain enrolled as those assigned to the control group, and users in the aggressive dark pattern condition were almost four times as likely to remain enrolled in the program."
This sadly looks like a @darkpatterns from
@gitlab 2019 Global Developer Report: DevSecOps
@usertesting the sadly ironic sales experience for visitors on your site is disappointing. No prices + minimal info on the pricing page = informed decision? Then chatbot that asks an unanswerable question & forces me to give email address/name before asking more.
Intentionally confusing buttons from “don’t be evil” @google @YouTube here.
"Do you want it or you want it? The choice is yours." What kind of UX #darkPattern sorcery is this lol...
@Quora, please let me know when you have fixed this very dark example of
@darkpatterns. I do not have the app and do not wish to download it. You leave me no other choice than leaving Quora. If that's what you want, so be it.
Really poor @darkpatterns from
@AdmiralUK. Sign up for car insurance online, manage account online, get email notification of auto-renewal (which I didn't explicitly sign up for) for a 38% increase in cost. No option to cancel auto-renewal online. Shameful and exploitative.
Another #DarkPattern from @listonic (a grocery list app). They use a blue button to add an item to your grocery list - but that button disappears when you scroll down. Their ad space, however, has a similar blue button plastered to it that's always visible.
Haven't seen this dark pattern before... Hit unsubscribe from an email, then like most people I almost skipped the "why?" part and almost got resubscribed. Car dealerships are still generally bad marketers.
Oof, a masterful dark pattern from
@nationalexpress @darkpatterns
@crazyegg You know what users LOVE when they're reading articles? Takeover popups that interrupt them and can't be dismissed. This is some @darkpatterns shenanigans right here.
Frustrating: Can’t turn off @Netflix autoplaying next episode kids’ videos directly on smart TV (must use web interface)
Bat-Sh*t Infuriating: @Netflix apparently CAN’T disable autoplay for KIDS profiles (only adult ones)? Shame on you.
I have no idea if analytics cookies are turned on or off. This obviously is not what 'good' looks like.
OK, so let's "continue to partners" (there isn't another option anyway). So this screen is now about advertising and tracking. There are 252 partners listed here, with 245 pre-selected. That is a lot of companies who want to know about you. Note the @darkpatterns usage of green.
Tried to redeem a @lionsgate digital movie download code, was forced into accepting spam marketing emails if I wanted to continue.
"Facebook users are prompt with a list of friend requests. They start tapping the ‘Confirm’ buttons, repeatedly, one after the other. At some point, the list starts showing suggestions instead of requests, but since the UI is almost identical, users easily miss this important difference, resulting in some unwanted friend requests."
"'Alexandra from Anaheim just saved $222 on her order' says one message next to an image of a bright, multicolored dress. [...] But “Alexandra from Anaheim” did not buy the dress. She does not exist."
I tried ticking and unticking the boxes—there's no way to permanently say no to both in @MyFitnessPal.
No way to sign out on @smule, an app with millions of downloads. To delete your account, you need to submit a request through their FAQ on their website and fill a super long form. I hate it when apps do this.
A perfect example of "weasel wording" from the Google Backup and Sync app preferences.
This is once a #darkpattern : I have to order the newsletter in order to be able to register with #otto_de
@PressedJuicery
Trying to unsubscribe from membership, and this what I get?! If I want to cancel, what button do I push?- You have to work at it to be this bad. #darkpatterns
There’s a dark pattern when you’re browsing @Quora on mobile. You can read an article for a while, but then this pop up shows up. There’s no way to exit out of the pop up without choosing one of these options and they both link to the App Store.
Guess I didn't cancel my @ipsy membership last month. I hope the $10 was worth it. I was planning to take a break for the summer, now I'll never subscribe to ipsy again.
This is a BS dark pattern from @JetBlue. They give the the cheap price of the flight, you enter all your info, then when it comes time to pick a seat, they make it seem like you need to upgrade to make sure you have a seat.
Great @darkpatterns from @Airbnb - The price first displayed is less than half of the actual total. The filter doesn't use the total, so it's useless. The lack of friction helps push people through w/o noticing. Still used AirBnb, but no longer my 1st choice.
Discovered such a shitty dark pattern on
@lastminute_com - radio button looks like it’s inactive but in fact you can still press on it. Thumbs down not good, LastMinute.
So apparently, to stop my (online) subscription @lemondefr, I gotta print a paper, fill my data, then send it like a postcard (and pay in the process). Nice
https://consent.yahoo.com/consent shame on you; on big easy button to accept or masses of well buried individual links to reject?
@united doesn't allow you to do web check in unless you download an app and scan your passport. The app collects data it is then able to sell to 3rd parties for their own marketing purposes.
Everyone seems eager to get a slice of us...
Holy crap, I had no idea @medium has known about this for years and still not fixed it. So they don't care about blind people?
Medium's signup process is a #darkpattern. It may seem like the only way to create an account is using Facebook/Google, but you can still use email. 1) Go to the "Sign in" page, 2) Click on "Sign in with email", 3) Enter your email, 4) Medium emails you an account creation link.
Square Enix uses trick wording so that some users will unintentionally opt in to marketing communications.
I don’t want to turn into a data bore, but I’m really beginning to notice what I’ll call ‘consent architecture’. A single click of a massive button to let all the cookies do all the tracking. Or manually unclicking every button, one by one
Practical and possible are v. Different
Ever looked for an online cancel button and struggled to find it? ‘Dark patterns’ may be to blame (Opinion feature in FT Magazine)
@CitizenApp, via a server enabled "experiment", now ̶a̶s̶k̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ requiring "Always allow" location access. Switching to "When is use" results in not being able to use the app at all
me: let me quickly order the #toddler some lotion
@amazon: cool, do this pantry thing for #freeshipping
me: k sure, let's get a bunch
amazon: nah we Red heart #ux
@darkpatterns
so you need to subscribe
Say it ain't so, Joe. First required field and submit button is to remain in the list. Unsubscribe isn't prepopulated with my email address? That's some #darkpatterns black magic.
@darkpatterns