dark patterns
Tech group calls India’s proposed guidelines against dark patterns ‘regulatory overlap’
An industry group representing several major U.S. tech companies has opposed the Indian government’s proposal against dark patterns, which are used to deceive online users, and said the move would…
Google is updating its ‘Ad’ tag to ‘Sponsored’ for mobile search
Over the years, Google has made it harder to separate ads from organic search results at a glance. In its current iteration, when users perform a search, the only distinction…
Instagram gets worse with dark patterns lifted from TikTok
I, of all people, got a fresh new user interface in Instagram the other day. Although the company has not rolled it out to all users yet, the changes seem…
Amazon agrees to drop Prime cancellation ‘dark patterns’ in Europe
Amazon has agreed to simplify the process required for cancelling its Prime membership subscription service across its sites in the European Union, both on desktop and mobile interfaces, following a…
Google’s ‘deceptive’ account sign-up process targeted with GDPR complaints
Consumer rights groups in Europe have filed a new series of privacy complaints against Google — accusing the advertising giant of deceptive design around the account creation process that they…
UK targets fake reviews and killer acquisitions in reform package
The UK has announced a bundle of consumer protection and competition reforms which could see platforms that fail to tackle fake reviews fined up to 10% of their global annual…
EU’s digital rule-book reboot could fumble dark patterns ban and trader checks, warns BEUC
When the European Commission presented its Digital Services Act (DSA) proposal in December 2020, it listed beefed up consumer protections as a headline goal for the flagship update to the…
The Web Foundation‘s Tech Policy Design Lab is working on an interesting-looking project to counter deceptive design — aka dark patterns* — with the goal of producing a portfolio of…
A new tip line invites anyone to name and shame companies for dark pattern designs
You may not be familiar with the term “dark patterns” but the manipulative design phenomenon is ubiquitous in the apps and services we use every day. Dark patterns nudge consumers…
Google’s latest user-hostile design change makes ads and search results look identical
Did you notice a recent change to how Google search results are displayed on the desktop? I noticed something last week — thinking there must be some kind of weird…
