📱 How online businesses manipulate us

Ever noticed how the Internet has become more spammy in recent years?

We’ve written previously about the enshittification of the Internet, which refers to the proliferation of low-quality and often AI-generated content online.

You’ve probably also noticed how websites are constantly pressuring you to subscribe, sign up, or register for something.

But when you try to unsubscribe…

These manipulative practices are called “dark patterns.”

The term was coined by user interface designer Harry Brignull in 2010.

He defines dark patterns on his Deceptive.Design website as:

He explained the origins of the term in a speech to federal regulators in 2021:

Design patterns are necessary for online businesses or websites.

For example, the Daily Concept uses a common “landing page” design pattern to get people to sign up for our newsletter when they visit our website.

But dark patterns take these design patterns and twist them to make them as manipulative or difficult as possible.

It may lead to higher sign-up rates or lower unsubscribe rates for the website, but it also degrades the user experience and decreases trust for consumers.

Here’s a great example from the Dark Patterns Wikipedia page:

An influential 2021 paper argued that dark patterns:

Are Dark Patterns Illegal?

Some forms of dark patterns, such as bait-and-switch pricing, are seen as fraud under U.S. law.

There have been a number of lawsuits and regulatory actions against companies accused of using dark patterns in recent years.

In 2022, weight-loss app Noom agreed to a $56M settlement after a lawsuit accused it of tricking customers into signing up for free trials that automatically turned into paid memberships that were hard to cancel.

The following year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) fined Epic Games, the company behind popular video game Fortnite, $245M for its use of “dark patterns to trick users into making purchases.”

Some of the money was used to refund affected customers.

LEARN MORE:

READ: A 2022 paper from the OECD titled Dark Commercial Patterns that explores the history of dark patterns - and considers what regulators & consumers can do about them.

WATCH: A ten-minute Ted Talk about Dark Patterns by designer Sally Woellner.

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