New website provides information about dark patterns
Decline is available as an option, but obviously shouldn’t be clicked. (Screenshot: darkpatternstipline.org)
Everywhere on the web we encounter interface elements that are supposed to achieve one thing above all else: That we do something that goes against our own interests. A new portal puts exactly such websites in the pillory.
Most of the time it boils down to a simple yes or no: Do you want to allow tracking cookies? Can we use your data for advertising purposes? Do you want to download this guaranteed virus-free app? The only problem is that a no is simply not welcome in all of these cases. So many apps and websites design these dialogs in a way that makes clicking the option you want more likely.
An interface designed in this way is called a dark pattern. The desired option is shown as a bright button, for example, while the undesired option is shown as a simple text link. In other cases, questions are deliberately asked in such a way that when users skim through the text, they are tempted to click on the option they actually don’t want.
Because these and other dark patterns are still a major problem on the Internet, the US consumer organization Consumer Reports now has it a website set up on which you can report such misleading interface elements. Consumer Reports does not take direct action against the reported websites or apps, but in the long term, help could still benefit the network. With the collected dark patterns, Consumer Reports wants to work with partners such as the digital civil rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation to put pressure on legislators so that misleading interface elements can be more strictly regulated in the future.
Contents
Dark Pattern: Website pillories negative examples
Selected submissions will be issued on the site. In addition to information on when and where the respective dark pattern was found, the creators of the website explain how users are to be manipulated by the interface element. There is also on the site too an overview of the most common tricksthat are used in a dark pattern.
