Dark patterns in the digital world are hiding in plain sight. But what are they?
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00:00A man in Bengaluru got pissed at a food & groceries delivery app for giving him half kg tomatoes for free.
00:06He argued that even if it was for free, it wasn't his choice and therefore the app was guilty of basket sneaking.
00:13What is basket sneaking, you might ask?
00:15Well, it is one type of dark or deceptive patterns that exist in the digital world.
00:20Everything was planned.
00:22Dark patterns are something that companies indulge in to make you do things that you didn't want to do.
00:27I don't want to do anything.
00:28A UK-based user experience designer Harry Brignell coined the term dark patterns in 2010.
00:35He also founded the dark patterns platform which he said was dedicated to naming and shaming websites that use deceptive user interfaces.
00:45No one will know.
00:46The Indian government has also taken note of these dark patterns which we will explore further in this video.
00:52According to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs guidelines for prevention and regulation of dark patterns,
00:57dark patterns are any practices or deceptive design pattern using user interface or user experience interactions on any platform
01:06that is designed to mislead or trick users to do something they originally did not intend to do or want to do
01:13by subverting or impairing the consumer autonomy, decision making or choice
01:17amounting to misleading advertisement or unfair trade practice or violation of consumer rights.
01:23This is a loaded definition.
01:25But in simple terms, dark patterns is anything that a digital platform makes you do which you did not want to do.
01:31The definition also says that the dark patterns are a violation of consumer rights.
01:36Now I will get into the different examples of dark patterns according to the guidelines for prevention and regulation of dark patterns.
01:44The first one is false urgency.
01:46Like when you're trying to book a room on a website, right?
01:49And suddenly a pop-up will say only two rooms left and 30 others are looking at this right now.
01:55And now you as a customer are feeling like you need to book it at the first instance.
02:00Otherwise, you will miss a good deal.
02:02This dark pattern is showing you false popularity of a product or service to manipulate your decision.
02:08The second example of dark pattern is basket sneaking,
02:12which the customer whom I introduced in the beginning of this video had accused a company of.
02:16Basket sneaking is when you're checking out and the company adds more products to your cart,
02:22which increases the payable amount at the end.
02:25Confirmed shaming is another example of a dark pattern.
02:29Confirmed shaming is a prompt that forces a customer to conform to the company's target.
02:34Like a message might pop up which could shame you as a customer into doing something you hadn't originally planned to do.
02:40And then you end up spending more.
02:43It's a tactic to create a sense of guilt or shame in the customer.
02:47For example, if you choose not to opt for travel insurance while booking a flight,
02:52a pop-up might say, I will choose to remain unsecure.
02:56And then you might want to choose that insurance because language like remain unsecure
03:01might create a sense of guilt or fear in your mind.
03:04Nagging is a self-explanatory dark pattern method.
03:07It means when a digital platform nags a customer so much, they end up acting the way the platform wanted.
03:13Like if I'm trying to buy lipsticks off a website,
03:16it might repeatedly ask me to download the company's app or ask me to turn on notifications without giving me the option to say no.
03:24Next is interface interference.
03:26This is a company website or app which is designed in a way to highlight specific information
03:31and obscure other relevant information basically to misdirect a person.
03:36An example of this is an ad pop-up which might show you an X mark to close the ad.
03:41But when you click on it, you realize it wasn't a real closing option and it led you to the ad itself.
03:46When a company wants to urge you to buy something,
03:50they might give you the yes and no options in different colors
03:54with the affirming option being more prominently colored as compared to the rejecting option.
03:59As a user, you might inadvertently click on the brighter option, which was yes.
04:04Sometimes when you end up subscribing to things this way and want to stop subscribing,
04:09the route for that might be a long-winded one on the website or app
04:13and many people might not have the bandwidth or desire to go all that way to reverse their action.
04:19This is an example of the Roche Motel dark pattern
04:23where entering the subscription is easy but leaving is difficult.
04:27Check-in time is now. Check-out time is never.
04:30Another dark pattern method is bait and switch.
04:33This is when a company offers you a product but when you try to buy it,
04:37it tells you that the product is out of stock and then it offers you an alternate option which is pricier.
04:46Sometimes when you opt for the trial period of a service,
04:49you might automatically get charged for it once the trial period ends.
04:53That's another dark pattern for you.
04:55These are only some dark patterns that we all inadvertently fall prey to.
04:59But is there any way we could avoid them?
05:02In the case of the Bengaluru man who tweeted about the free tomatoes,
05:06removing the free goods wasn't an option, he said.
05:09When other social media users pointed out that it wasn't technically basket sneaking
05:14because the app did charging for the tomatoes,
05:17the man said it was still something he had to do without his consent.
05:21Sometimes dark patterns are inescapable.
05:24And besides tricking customers into spending more on products,
05:27dark patterns also might be used to track people's activity online.
05:32So the first thing a user could do is make themselves more aware about dark patterns
05:36and be mindful while using digital platforms so they could possibly avoid them.
05:41And in case they've been made to choose an option that they didn't want,
05:45they could take it up with the customer service of the particular platform.
05:48In December 2023, the Indian government banned 13 dark pattern practices.
05:53The guidelines for prevention and regulation of dark patterns
05:57applied to all platforms that offer goods and services in India,
06:01including advertisers and sellers.