Google

"Google has now drawn a line in the sand. Give us all your local SSIDs, local bluetooth connections, with likely even more detail, or they now refuse to allow you to use Maps to navigate."

Following investigations, the CNIL noted that the websites facebook.com, google.fr and youtube.com do not make refusing cookies as easy as to accept them. It thus fines FACEBOOK 60 million euros and GOOGLE 150 million euros and orders them to comply within three months.

"Google for years has used misleading notifications to lure users into disabling its rival’s browser extensions [...] The changes include requiring users to answer whether they would rather “Change back to Google search” after adding the DuckDuckGo extension and showing users a larger, highlighted button when giving them the option to “Change it back”.

Google has recently rebranded its Adwords advertising platform to Google Ads. Together with the new name, the interface also got a big overhaul. And as someone who spends many hours of every day on the platform, I can’t say I’m happy with the results.

"Getting desperate now? This came up when I opened the @YouTube app. I don't want premium. I don't want a trial. I've said that at least a hundred times so far, now this without even a close button. Talk about @darkpatterns

Google appear to be tricking the user into 'enabling YouTube history' (in this case it had been disabled) so that the user can then 'choose an auto-delete option' for that history.

Google Calendar has always had a "Add Google Meet / Google Hangout" option on calendar meeting invites, but recently auto-adds the Google Meet if you add others to the calendar invite, without any notification.

Although it's arguable whether this was on purpose or not, it is likely to have driven ad revenue from accidental clicks.

Qualitative evaluation of the consent-obtaining mechanisms implemented and used by the five big tech companies, i.e. Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft (GAFAM)

Google hiding the ability to say no thanks only if you scroll down. Not immediately obvious that you can

Today @googlenews joined the ranks of "Sites that don't want you to use ad-blockers/privacy tools & just tell you that you're offline if you do" (along with @TheAtlantic) I'm fine with "Turn off your ad-blocker to use this site," less so with lying.

Intentionally confusing buttons from “don’t be evil” @google @YouTube here.

A perfect example of "weasel wording" from the Google Backup and Sync app preferences.

Ever looked for an online cancel button and struggled to find it? ‘Dark patterns’ may be to blame (Opinion feature in FT Magazine)

Report by the Norwegian Consumer Council showing how Google uses dark patterns to manipulate users into enabling location tracking. The NCC filed a GDPR complaint against Google based on the report.

News article responding to the Norwegian Consumer Council's "Deceived by Design" report.

A fantastic report by the Norwegian Consumer Council that explains how tech companies use dark patterns to discourage us from exercising our rights to privacy. Facebook, Google and Windows 10 are named and shamed.

You can set up the phone without a google account connected, but it doesn't show that as an option until you fail to log in 3 times.

The first four results of a google search for “flowers” are ads disguised as search results. They have a small green tag that identifies them as ads, but many users will not notice this and click on the ads anyways.

Repeatedly asks user for permission to use location data, only allowing “don’t show me again” to be selected if permission is given, pestering the user until they give permission.