Deceived by Design

The Norwegian Consumer Council, a government agency that promotes and protects the rights of consumers, has published a report (PDF) on how Facebook, Google and Windows 10 use dark patterns to manipulate users:

In this report, we analyze a sample of settings in Facebook, Google and Windows 10, and show how default settings and dark patterns, techniques and features of interface design meant to manipulate users,are used to nudge users towards privacy intrusive options. The findings include privacy intrusive default settings, misleading wording, giving users an illusion of control, hiding away privacy-friendly choices, take-it-or-leave-it choices, and choice architectures where choosing the privacy friendly option requires more effort for the users.

June 28, 2018