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Dark patterns: Another challenge in the digital era
Deceptive snugness is one of many types of dark patterns that we as users often experience, where digital services put invasive features in by default.
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A man browses products on a mobile shopping app in Jakarta on June 16. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
H
ave you ever hastily bought a low-cost flight ticket just because the website says “only 2 seats left” and found that those 2 seats are still there the next day after your purchase? Have you ever confusedly clicked “agree” to a long set of terms and conditions? If the answer is yes, it means you have been trapped by dark patterns.
Dark patterns can be explained as manipulative behavioral strategies, interface designs or other techniques that are implemented on digital platforms. Dark patterns can influence users’ decisions in ways they do not realize and can even decrease users’ freedom to make decisions and facilitate price discrimination.
The use of dark patterns is solely for digital services’ benefit, for example, by making users addicted to platforms to increase companies’ profits, setting the highest possible price for the target profile or packing in additional advertising. Unfortunately, these practices continue to be implemented, as there are no policies or regulations that explicitly prohibit them.
As a case in point, nowadays, many digital services aim to begin tracking users as soon as they visit the platform’s homepage to predict users’ likelihood of buying products so that they can have tailored services, known as profiling. In order to do that, digital services need to collect personal data from the users, which can also include sensitive data.
Although profiling may enhance user experience, not all users want to share that kind of data. Here is why dark patterns can play a significant role in nudging users to unwittingly give their consent for digital services to collect and process their personal data.
Deceptive snugness is one of many types of dark patterns that we as users often experience. This is where digital services put invasive features in by default. This practice nudges users to keep pre-selected features that are set in favor of the digital services, since users are usually unaware of the setting or are just too lazy to change the pre-selected setting.
This practice is usually found, among other places, in the cookies banner, where the default setting is that users agree to sharing their data for purposes such as advertising and market research. Another example is overloading, where users are faced with a massive amount of information to persuade them to give more data or accidentally consent to the processing of their personal data contrary to their wishes.
