Hall of shame

Dark patterns in privacy. There are at least 3 problems with this EU-based cookie banner, can you spot them?

‘This process is annoying enough the first time, but at some point down the line, you'll also be offered […] the "second chance out-of-box experience," , which will try to get you to do all of this stuff again if you skipped some of it the first time.’

Just found out that if you want to delete a Facebook Group you're in charge of, you have to manually remove every member one-by-one until you're the last one left, and then you have the option to remove/delete it. This is insanely asinine. 😠

just got hit with my first surprise @figma billing where it added two editors to my bill and charged automatically when all I did was give them file permissions on one file. wild to me how a company who does so much good for the community still hasn’t fixed this dark pattern

Adalytics alleges that YouTube appears to set long-lasting cookies specifically for users who are watching videos labeled "for kids." It also suggested that serves “targeted ads on YouTube videos that are clearly labeled as 'for kids.'"

Wall Street Journal requires it users to go on a date with a reporter to cancel its subscription

Skype is sending this notification once per day. For a communications app to abuse notifications in this way is unconscionable. Of course I can’t turn them off. I just have to endure the abuse. Absolute shame on Skype and Microsoft.

Here's yet another class action about fake "sale" prices. Remember: using fake reference prices to run sales is illegal under the FTC Act and California's laws. This time, ecommerce wallet brand Ekster is in the crosshairs:

Coglode Cures - Interactive Behavioural Remedies

disappointed by the dark patterns I've encountered over at @spaceship ! pretty weak that you built the ability to upgrade your account but not downgrade.

You can choose to turn on your watch history to get recommended videos, or stick with a simpler home page.

Norway's data privacy watchdog has fined Meta $6.8 million for violating users' privacy by using their personal data to target ads as it failed to get users' consent to use data about their interests to serve them personalized ads.

Users agree to allow Zoom to access and use their Service Generated Data for various purposes, including product development, marketing, analytics, and improving their services, in accordance with applicable laws and this Agreement.

Pay no attention to the USB port behind the “no USB” sticker. Is covering a printer’s USB port with a sticker to push people into wireless printing the worst thing HP does with its hardware? Not remotely.

A double whammy of deceptive patterns from webuyanyphone.com. First, a countdown timer pressuring you to "secure this value" by checking out quickly. Second, a £5 bonus if you sign up for a "free trial" of McAfee, which sets up a recurring subscription. cc: @darkpatterns

This is ridiculous and I hate when companies throw dark patterns at their users to try and trick them into staying subscribed to apps. Very uncool, @Scribd

Enough with the BS dark patterns! @TheAthletic cc: @darkpatterns

I thought the unsubscribe button might have been black on black but… there is literally none! @figma @darkpatterns

3/n Next I dealt with @British_Airways deceptive design pattern approach to pushing surveillance cookies (misleading emphasis) cc @darkpatterns #UI #fail

The 'Ad' icon placement and wording has changed on Twitter. Because your eye usually automatically scans to the place where it used to be, it's easier to get scammed at the moment by ads like this. Worth being a bit more careful than usual.

Hei, @comcast / @Xfinity can we stop with the dark patterns? I just want to cancel service, I don't care to chat with your agents and your bot is just a loop. Just stop the service already.

1/Hello @Daily_Express I notice you're using dark patterns in a dire 'cookie' notice. (a) Defaulted to 'I accept' which would trigger NINE HUNDRED & TEN third party 'partners (b) Clicking 'More options' takes you to window showing a number of purposes set to 'OFF' & a choice of

This is some creepy dark pattern bullshit from @kpthrive . They're using the legally required language to threaten people into allowing them to profit of health data sales and sharing by making it seem as though you are somehow giving up HIPAA protections in order to protect data

Trying to skip a month of @humble Choice is a cacophony of @darkpatterns . Too many steps, alternating button colors to trick you into clicking the wrong thing, inconsistent language, etc.

new dark pattern dropped. Cant cancel your @Crunchyroll account if you replace the cancel button with a "keep subscription" button! X should do this, seems effective.

@darkpatterns Nonsensical unsubscribe button and check boxes. Am I unsubscribing by checking or subscribing? (Specscart)

We should boycott companies like @Dominos_UK that use these kinds of predatory schemes to try and trick people into subscriptions they don't need. Frankly this should be illegal. Especially the dark pattern that makes it look at a glance like it's part of the order process.

""Catalog of Dark Patterns Discover a variety of dark pattern examples, sorted by category, to better understand deceptive design practices.""

. @PerkinsCoieLLP shares details of the $18.5M settlement Publishers Clearing House reached w/ @FTC following allegations of deceptive practices, such as the use of #dark patterns to encourage #sweepstakes entries and purchases. #ConsumerProtection

. @Shutterstock is seriously the worst. I didn’t even know I signed up for an annual sub the way they do dark patterns in their checkout, now they try to hold you hostage by paying $60 to cancel? I haven’t used this in 4 months you got way more than your $60. Awful service.

6/ It really is important to understand that if a person selects 'More Options' then 'Reject All', then 'Save & Exit', those action do NOT disable the 'Legitimate Interest' purposes. A person would need to select 'Legitimate Interest' then select 'OBJECT ALL' & 'Save & Exit'

The Norwegian data protection authority is issuing a ban on Meta's use of surveillance-based advertising. Happy to see some actual enforcement of the GDPR!

A few weeks ago, the FTC accused Amazon of using misleading design features to prevent consumers from cancelling their Prime subscriptions. Let’s break down some of the “dark patterns” the FTC identified:

Here's an example of how a false advertising claim about "limited supply" representations can survive a pleadings challenge: The makers of "Ultra Fast Keto Boost" ran ads claiming a "limited supply" and urging customers to act quickly.

The Threads app almost immediately displayed a whole bunch of dark patterns with its user interface. We spotted at least 11 of them, and we’re sure there are a lot more to come. Here are some highly evident dark tricks the Threads app is using to ensure you stay on the platform as long as you possibly can… and supply Meta with even more data than before.

Apparently you can't delete threads without deleting Instagram. A new form of sludge! @jiayingzhao @R_Thaler @katy_milkman @ideas42 @CassSunstein @stuart_mmills @UofT_BEAR @avicgoldfarb @StephaneCoteTO

Nice "dark pattern" there, @Ubiquiti . In the 'app', i MUST create a cloud account. But if I connect to the console via the browser, I can skip that step.

Dark pattern from @adobe . There’s no option to skip the trial and just use the free version, so the burden is on the user to remember to cancel.

It took over a half an hour of wasted time on the phone with @siriusxmcanada to cancel the other day. Called because of #Overbilling I must have said "please just cancel my account" at least 50 times. Ridiculous.

A lawsuit filed yesterday against Foot Locker accuses the brand of using a "false urgency" dark pattern—claiming items are running out of stock, when they aren't:

This is our second dark pattern lawsuit over the last week,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said of the PCH lawsuit in a written statement. “Firms that continue to deploy deceptive design techniques are on notice.

"Yelp sues Google for antitrust violations"

Classic @darkpatterns from @smh this should be illegal. Or, they can ask you to sign up over the phone too!

Complaint PDF here: https://ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/amazon-rosca-public-redacted-complaint-to_be_filed.pdf "Amazon used an internal term called “Iliad” to describe the process, referencing Homer’s epic poem about the Trojan War"

Adore Me lured consumers into their VIP Membership Program without being upfront about the automatic charges and membership terms

Dark patterns are everywhere. We just accept them as tools of engagement!

ever tried to stop email notifications on linkedin? did you know it takes a minimum of navigating 64 menus? it is incredibly user-hostile 1/n @darkpatterns

@darkpatterns Not the worst I’ve seen. But still petty

. @darkpatterns from steinberg, makers of cubase: you have to sign up for their newsletter to download any of their products, even the free ones. other audio plugin developers make you sign up for a newsletter for free downloads too. i've never seen anyone else pull this shit.

Check out this level 9000 @darkpatterns on NextDoor

"1/ Hey Hugging Face, NO. You do not have my consent to use my content and personal data to train your AI and ML models. If you believe my consent isn't needed, then I otherwise object. Also, have you deleted the data you obtained from BlueSky"

@windows 10 with another @darkpatterns where it keeps nagging for the user to "finish setting up the PC" when it's more than set up intentionally without an on line account and the screen does NOT have a choice to "not ask this again". Instead it makes you click "remind me later" as if you wanted to be nagged again. Can we stop this, @Microsoft ? It's condescending!

@hangly: your cancellation policy is downright evil. Seriously, couldn't your UX team find any smaller font for that gotcha in your cancellation terms?

"This is a free app that uses a very deceptive means of tricking users to upgrade to the paid version which is $29 to $49 a year. When you open the app the screen presents three screens promoting the paid version. On the first two screens there is no way to bypass them and you are forced to press a large continue button. On the third screen is the same pitch to try it free for one week and the same large continue button. Only if you look carefully can you find the very small and muted x at the top left on the page. We accidentally clicked on the continue button and was immediately enrolled in the 7 day free trial with a notice we will be billed automatically on our iPhone on the 8th day unless we cancel. I am trying to cancel the subscription but there is no indication whatsoever on the app how to opt out. This is very disappointing since this is a scientific plant identification app and I would not have suspected that a science/educational app would resort to deceptive tactics."

Damn if I ever seen a #darkpattern this is it. If you want to decline tracking it claims it takes several minutes and it gives you a huge green button to cancel (=accept tracking).

The wording here (“Update now”) strikes me as something of a ⁦ @darkpatterns ⁩ — it almost implies that the app is out of date, and should just be labelled “Subscribe”. (At least the default option is to dismiss the button.)

For the umpteenth time: NO! Remove this dark pattern! @Microsoft

And I’m sure it’s a coincidence that I can pay over the phone and online but in order to get my money back I have to fax or mail @KPMidAtlantic they have so much incentive to just hoard peoples money. Make it as hard as possible to get your money back. Just scammers and thugs.

Why are you using these annoying dark patterns @StreamOnMax to try to force me to watch trailers? (cc @darkpatterns )

Somehow I accidentally clicked something in Instagram and ended up here. There was no way to exit. The only options were to continue synching with my contacts which I didn’t want to do or read more. I had to swipe close the whole app.

Have you seen this £15 a month for a cash back reward dark pattern being used by Dominos and Papa Johns?

Wow, it only took me 20 minutes of searching and watching youtube videos to find the downgrade button in @NotionHQ . The tiny grayed "see all plans" button really helped. Couldn't believe this happened in 2023, there is no better example of dark patterns @darkpatterns than this.

The truth is, Dynamic Security has nothing at all to do with security, and everything to do with frustrating consumers who choose non-HP cartridges in an effort to improve sales of genuine HP cartridges.

"While purchasing supplements, the option defaults to buying a quantity of six bottles (or another large quantity) as opposed to purchasing a single individual one."

"During the height of pandemic (last year) my wife and I were on lockdown. We noticed on our credit card statements that Planet Fitness continued to collect their monthly charge. We attempted to cancel our membership by going to the Planet Fitness website only to find there was no way to cancel online. I had to call my gym only to be told I had to submit a notarized letter before they would entertain my request. Needless to say, we are no longer interested in becoming members."

In today's episode of @darkpatterns : Microsoft Edge (of course!) If you click "Manage Settings", you'll note that Personalization & advertising is disabled. If you click the seemingly passive "Got it!", you are telling the browser to CHANGE a setting to benefit MS financially.

Adobe is running the exact same dark pattern, even now. It's just too much free money, at the expense of people who think $54.99/month means $54.99/month, and not "commit to an annual plan and pay 12x$54.99/month (or terminate for a massive penalty)." This should not be legal.

"It is difficult to sign out of accounts on Google Apps on iOS. There is the ability to “remove account” or to browse without using an account but there is no clear way to sign out of your account. Furthermore, when looking for help in the help center, information on logging out or signing out does not appear despite providing information on how to sign in. Google also appears to log you into multiple apps on the same account, even if you do not have them open. For example, logging into Google Docs or Gmail will also log you into Google Maps."

"It is difficult to determine the amount of Brella shields you are purchasing. They offer $19.99 for one windshield Brella cover and one more for $9.99. Then when you click check out, they ask you a series of confusing questions about your order, like confirm you want one extra Bella shield.They have a double offer, which is by default checked off, and a single offer, which you have to switch to from the double offer to purchase an individual shield, which can be difficult to differentiate if you are not reading closely enough."

"Signing up for monthly payment easy, cancellation impossible"

"Incredibly difficult to cancel services."

"You have to contact the customer service team between specific hours to cancel your subscription."

"On mobile devices Reddit.com detects that you are using a mobile device and will not let you see all the deeper levels of nested replies/comments to a post UNLESS you login or use the a mobile Reddit app installed your phone. This is a dark pattern because on Desktop you can see all the nested levels of replies/comments anonymously without logging in. This is a loss of privacy and and a trick compared to the Desktop use of the site."

"To pressure customers into buying a product, Wellbeing Labs has a countdown timer that resets itself and the limited stock of gummies does not actually disappear and there is additional pressure from seeing customers “buy” gummies in the lefthand bottom corner."

"Extremely challenging to cancel paid service after free trial complete. I ended up paying for two months of their service after attempting to cancel it after bring unable to do so. The only way I was able to stop it was to call my credit card company and ask them to not authorize any payments to them."

"Windows 11 is such ass why is my work PC giving me pop up suggestions to buy Black Ops 6"

"New: Snapchat is reserving the right to use your own, AI-generated likeness in ads that can then target you. The setting is on by default according to our tests"

"Instagram users under 18 will automatically be subject to limitations on who can message them, how much sensitive content is recommended and who can see their profiles."

"The Meta thing is interesting because users have been vocally opposed to all these tweaks along the way & they have defended each one w/ metrics+engagement. But when theres competition, people are moving. Its a reminder that engagement enjoyment. Wonder what e..."

"On a checkout page, it’s a familiar experience to be asked to opt in or out of marketing. But in every case I’ve seen so far, this choice is placed directly next to the box where I enter my email address. On this particular site, the “email me” control is checked by default, and located very far away from where I enter my email address. See the screenshot; the “email me” control is just below the order total. This spot is cleverly chosen: unfamiliar, and also easy to miss because it’s surrounded by things (total, OK button) that are both more important and graphically highlighted. This very nearly got me to agree to be spammed, without intending to. (Whether unchecking the box actually does anything is another question.)"

"I have to accept all cookies in order to unsubscribe from @IBKR marketing emails (and get similar behaviour with the website in general)"

I signed up to @NOW at a reduced price of £5.99 (normally £9.99) as part of a 3 month special offer, Today I decided to cancel my subscription, To dissuade me from cancelling my subscription, @NOW threaten to increase my price for the remainder of my contract to the original £9.99. Ironic that NOW is home to characters like Joker and The Night King, cause this is a perfect example of scum and villainy if I’ve ever seen it. @darkpatterns

Typeform makes it difficult for users to cancel their subscriptions. This analysis by growth.design unpacks the issues and provides recommendations.

Dominos and Pizza Hut use deceptive patterns in a confusing system of discount codes and deal finders, subtly overcharging customers.

In an apparent effort to boost email open rates, T-shirt vendor True Classic sent a marketing email with the subject line "Appointment Confirmed...". This is forbidden under the CAM-SPAM act Section 5 (a) (2) "Prohibition of deceptive subject headings".

"Love this deceptive pattern from Microsoft in which they bundle something many want (listing better jobs) with something else few people care about (ads). Are you ready for the same lack of enforcement with DMA consent that we are getting with the GDPR?"

"To sign up for their services or to upgrade, one follows the prompts they provide. When we sign on or upgrade, we get right through, easy peasy, no wait times. Nice reps, etc. We’ve also needed to cancel before and downgrade our plans again following the prompts to get the correct rep/dept. The difference is night and day! We’ve waiting at least an hour on hold twice and an hour and a half once and that time finally hung up because we ran out of patience. They make it extremely difficult to get through to cancel or downgrade AND their refund method is borderline thievery. Instead of a prorated refund if terminating or downgrading anytime during a month, no prorated refund is given. If you cancel mid month, one loses all monies. In our case one time we finally grew so fed up with their tactics that we decided to cancel. Unaware that we were ONE day into our plan month they refused to refund us for the month that we were canceling/losing! They argued that we were one day into the month so we owed the full $175.00! We called back and spoke with supervisors and didn’t get anywhere."

"You cannot cancel premium channels online."

A proposed class action alleges Vimeo automatically renews consumers’ subscription plans without first making certain disclosures required under California law.

Austrian daily newspaper "Der Standard" launched an attempt to circumvent the law: readers had to choose between their data being processed or buying a subscription.

"When you purchase merchandise from their website, they default you to the expedited shipping fee, tripling the shipping cost, and you have to decline it rather than choose it. If you don’t catch it, you just paid a lot more in shipping fees than you should have to get your items."

"They have an introductory offer to chose six wines for $49.99 but you need to give them your email address to obtain the offer."

"They will advertise a property for, say $75 per night. That is what you are willing to pay so you proceed to try to book it. You may want it for three nights and think that you might pay $225 or maybe just a little bit more but the total comes up to much more with added cleaning fee, service fee owners fee, and a host of other possible fees, so your total for the three nights may be well over 2X what you were planning, and able, to pay."

"I was told that I would receive free goods from this site if I signed up for only one dollar membership and that I could easily cancel at anytime. My credit card was charged numerous times totalling over eighty dollars! I tried calling them numerous times to no avail. I told them I wanted to cancel & the lady told me I would need to call back in 45 minutes as the computers were down. So I called back & spoke with another person that told me she needed my credit card number and telephone number to verify membership. I didn’t give it to her but unfortunately the damage was already done before I contacted my bank & canceled the card! I just don’t want this to happen to anyone else. It has made me fearful to buy anything else online."

"Very easy to join but very hard to cancel – you can’t cancel from the Hello Fresh app. You are required to login to the website in order to cancel. When you search for “cancel” on their help pages, they bury the information and then show you instructions as to how to skip deliveries first."

"The website places coercive banners at the top of the site telling how many items are left in stock and banners of people purchasing the foot pads in the bottom left corner. However, the items left in stock does not change with more supposed purchases."

"Made it difficult to cancel subscription. Cancelling a subscription required navigating multiple hoops, and filling out a form with a ton of required fields to cancel. The website then guilt-trips you several times over."

"It’s been very difficult to cancel my subscription despite being able to easily subscribe. The site is like a brick wall. I may be able to do it by disputing the charge with my credit card but I have called several times to cancel to no avail."

"I had to provide my email BEFORE I could find out what the cost of a subscription to this streaming channel was, After ending the session (because the cost turned out to be too high), I immediately started getting emails from them that I had not agreed to receive."

"HumbleBundle allows you some control in how your purchase price gets divided amongst the content creators, HumbleBundle themselves, and a charity. In the example screenshot, my purchase price is $10. (Note moving any one of the three sliders moves the other two, so it’s hard to set an even split or even value)"