Hall of shame

A detailed analysis of Linkedin's deceptive practices, relating to the Perkins v. Linkedin Corp. lawsuit.

The full case text of Perkins v. Linkedin Corp. This is the class action lawsuit in which Linkedin was required to pay roughly $13 million due to their use of various dark patterns, including "Friend Spam".

Sports Direct sneaks an item into the customers cart when they go to checkout. To remove it, the user must click “back to bag”, where the sneaked-in item will appear – even though it didn’t before.

An early article written about Dark Patterns in 2013.

The first set of tick boxes corresponds to means through which the user does not want to receive information, while the second set corresponds to means through which they do wish to receive information. A user could easily be tricked into signing up for a service they don’t want.

The site makes it appear that the answer to the question is behind a paywall, but it is really at the bottom of the page, which is accessible without paying. The website is trying to trick users into paying for a subscription.

The radio button for a free next directory is already checked, but if the user doesn’t read the fine print they will unknowingly consent to a credit check and having a credit account opened, which sends brochures 4x a year at a cost of £3.75 each.

A presentation by Harry Brignull on Dark Patterns. Includes examples from Apple, Post-office.co.uk, Royal Mail, Santander, Quora, Twitter, The Ladders, JustFab, Next.co.uk and M&S.

Opting in to marketing emails is in the terms and conditions, the user doesn’t have a choice

The user can unknowingly sign up for a membership to the site when they purchase something unless they read the fine print in the terms and conditions

This is an ad designed to look like a download button for the software that site visitors are trying to access.

The download site wupload tries to get users to buy “premium” download speeds, and also includes links to a “Make money” ad scheme.

When an update is available, the user is unable to shutdown or restart their operating system without updating.

The original presentation that started it all -

In this old clip from 2006, a consumer attempts to persuade an AOL customer services rep to allow them to cancel their account. The rep makes it very difficult.

The text on this voting ballot from 1938 reads asks a question for which the voter is presented with a large circle labelled “Yes”, and a smaller “No”. The circle size discrepancy is a dark pattern, as is the joining of two very separate questions into one answer in the ballot text.