Dark patterns: confirmshaming, roach motels and preselected consent
Nineteen interfaces built to work against the person using them. Every question shows a design as a mockup and asks what it is doing; every explanation shows the same screen redesigned honestly. Covers confirmshaming, pre-ticked consent, cancellation flows that run four pages deep, countdown timers that reset on reload, fees that arrive one screen at a time, and pricing tables that resist comparison, alongside what the GDPR asks of a consent box, what the FTC found inside Amazon's cancellation flow, and how the EU Digital Services Act names the harm.
Questions
- Not answered. This pop-up offers a discount, and the link that declines it reads No thanks, I like paying full price. What makes that wording a deceptive pattern rather than ordinary sales copy?
- Not answered. A delete dialog says Deleting this project also deletes 3 years of build history. This cannot be undone. Why is that not confirmshaming, even though it is written to make you hesitate?
- Not answered. The marketing and data-sharing boxes on this sign-up form arrive already ticked, and nothing stops the user unticking either one. Under the GDPR, why can a tick that arrives that way still fail as consent?
- Not answered. A consent panel lists 412 advertising partners, each with its own switch, next to a single large Accept all. Which of the EDPB's categories does this fit, and what is the mechanism?
- Not answered. In January 2022 the French regulator announced fines of €150 million against Google and €60 million against Facebook over banners shaped like this one. What did it find unlawful?
- Not answered. Cheap to enter and laborious to leave: which name did the original dark-patterns taxonomy give this shape, borrowing it from a 1970s insect-trap slogan about checking in and never checking out?
- Not answered. Signing up for Amazon Prime took one click. The FTC's 2023 complaint described a cancellation flow that Amazon had named after Homer's epic. How many clicks did the complaint say cancelling took?
- Not answered. Which of these changes actually fix a subscription that is harder to leave than it was to join?
- Not answered. A product page shows a countdown labelled Offer ends in 04:59. Which observation across these three visits proves the deadline is manufactured?
- Not answered. Only 2 left in stock appears under a product. What has to be true for that line to be an honest signal rather than fake scarcity?
- Not answered. Two tickets are advertised at £48.00 each. The service fee is £12.50 per ticket, order processing is £6.00 and delivery is £4.00. What does the order actually cost, in pounds?
- Not answered. A basket contains Shipping Protection, £4.99, which the shopper never chose. What separates this from an ordinary upsell?
- Not answered. These three email settings point in different directions. Which combination results in no email at all?
- Not answered. Three plans are priced per user per month, per user per year, and per seat per day. Which one actually costs the least per user per month?
- Not answered. A download page shows three large DOWNLOAD buttons and, lower down, a plain text link. Which signal reliably identifies the file the page is actually about?
- Not answered. A notification prompt offers Allow and Not now, and comes back on every visit. Which property of that pair of buttons makes it nagging?
- Not answered. Every form has to default to something, and most people accept whatever it defaults to. Which of these defaults survive scrutiny?
- Not answered. Article 25 of the EU Digital Services Act addresses deceptive interfaces directly. What does it prohibit?
- Not answered. The EDPB sorts deceptive design into Overloading, Skipping, Stirring, Obstructing, Fickle and Left in the Dark. Which interface belongs to Left in the Dark?