Hall of shame

The German "expat community" website @Internationsorglures their members into automatically renewing membership subscription plans & charges their credit cards without prior notification for yearly membership fees. If an @Internationsorg member decides not willing to accept that the Albatross membership was automatically renewed, they force their #darkpatterns on them by hiding the "downgrade" & "delete profile" options from the user interface & threat their members with debt collectors.

"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

This is a very long legal agreement that the user can only read 10 lines at a time, making it more likely for users to give up and proceed, unawares of the content of the document.

The Norwegian Consumer Council’s study analysed the cancellation process for Amazon Prime. The analysis shows that consumers who want to leave the service are faced with a large number of hurdles, including complicated navigation menus, skewed wording, confusing choices, and repeated nudging. Throughout the process, Amazon manipulates users through wording and graphic design, making the process needlessly difficult and frustrating to understand.

The traditional square stop-button has been disappearing from media players across the board. This seems like a deliberate trend; a subtle tactic to keep you "captive" - don't present the user with any obvious option to stop watching and they will be less likely to think to.

"Legitimate Interest sounds like "you say no, but we're making it legitimate to track you". So I don't consent but you still have a legitimate right to have relationship with my privacy? How does that work? 🤔"

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.

"Before you use, or subscribe to @Baremetrics, please make sure you read this. This happened today. I went to their app to try & unsubscribe because we feel that Stripe's own dashboard is good enough for us after they added reporting specifically.

When you try to find the unsubscribe button from peacock emails. Dark gray on a dark black background.

If the user attempts to click go, the cookie pop-up may appear directly below their cursor just as they are about to click, causing them to inadvertently opt in to tracking.

Maybe don't say there's a chance to get a 25% discount when its literally impossible

"@myoddballs Maybe don't say there's a chance to get a 25% discount when its literally impossible"

The instagram redesign involved moving a new shopping button to where the "like" button used to be, causing many users to tap it by mistake.

In the last days, the most recent Instagram update has been in the news for the worst reasons. Many users and influencers have publicly spoken out their dissatisfaction, namely James Charles, who, in a rant video, advised his followers not to update their apps.

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.

Marktplaats.nl saves your email and spams you even if you don’t finish registering for an account

Upgraded to iOS 14. Apple says "setup hey Siri" and has "setup later in settings" under it in small text Tap that, then continue with normal Siri Giant red 1 on settings Have to repeat above Also have to reenable dictation on my keyboard.

Before the American election we compared the experience of donating money to Donald Trump vs Joe Biden through their websites. Who uses dark patterns to trick users into donating more?

The account deletion process requires the user to check their email. This makes the process unnecessarily difficult.

Beekting.com provides customers with instructions on how to create fake notifications that play on cognitive biases.

"A group of researchers at Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) has just published the findings of its research into a collection of 100,000 political emails, including those from the Trump campaign. It found that the majority of emails used “dark patterns” to manipulate voters and trick donors."

Deceptive food packaging is everywhere. This packaging recommends that you eat 4 biscuits as part of a "balanced breakfast" but the calorie figures are for an 11.25g serving, which turns out to be just a single biscuit.

Psychology Today website is a roach motel. You can't remove your credit card info, you can only change it. There is no way to stop the service through their website interface. Have to contact them to get it stopped.

"Whereas some campaigns might communicate with supporters for the purpose of grass-roots organizing, the Trump emails I receive have only one purpose: to gin up contributions. And the solicitations are unlike any I’ve ever seen. Tonally, they diverge wildly from those of past presidential campaigns — or from anything that might be termed “presidential” at all."

FT.com, making it very easy to sign up for a monthly charge of 28 € instead of cancelling subscription which was my intended purpose.

Tesla owner says he butt-dialed a $4,280 Autopilot upgrade — and is still waiting on a refund. Dr. Ali Vaziri says he was charged for a $4,280 software upgrade for his Tesla without even being aware of opening the app. Other Tesla users have reported similar problems.

I'm pretty sure I observed a dark pattern with Spectrum cable's support chat. If I am right, they're trying to weed out people by making them wait as a sort of barrier to using chat.

This website uses a privacy management tool called TrustArc which makes it much slower to opt out of tracking than to opt in.

When confirming preferences to 'Allow Apps to Request to Track', the text is confusing and does not make it clear whether apps are not allowed to track the user, or won’t have to ask before tracking them.

Running and cycling app Strava's Flyby privacy settings are automatically set to be shared with everyone. Thus users passing one another will be tagged in each other's runs, and able to access their full name, picture and a map of their running route.

"A new study out of Princeton shows that the vast majority of campaigns use dark patterns and clickbait subject lines to beg for donations."

Children’s Online Learning Program ABCmouse failed to disclose important information to consumers, leading many consumers to be renewed & charged for memberships without their consent

"At a time when many parents are looking for more opportunities for educational enrichment online, it is disappointing that services like ABCmouse have scammed millions of dollars from families through dark patterns, as alleged in the Commission’s complaint. By making it extremely difficult to cancel recurring subscription fees, ABCmouse engaged in conduct that was not only unethical, but also illegal."

A loan popup screen appears when a user logs in to Pakistani bank HBL's app. It features a picture, some text and Yes/No buttons to begin evaluation of your loan, all in English. This could lead to users who did not want a loan getting one and paying it back with 25-35% interest.

StoriesOnBoard does not allow users to cancel their subscription without sending an email or starting a support chat.

Wired's consent management platform shows unselected settings as having 'Objection applied'. A box to opt-in is labelled 'Remove objection'. Using the word 'objection' implies shaming the user for not having opted in.

Social media platforms repeatedly use so-called dark patterns to nudge you toward giving away more of your data.

The Tfl App's Privacy Settings offer a ‘Accept All’ but no ‘Reject All' option. For users not wanting to Accept All the option is to 'Manage Cookies' which then leads the requirement to 'Manage Partners’. Users may find this time-consuming and non-transparent.

Now TV takes subscribers wishing to cancel through multiple screens asking them if they're sure they wish to cancel before letting them select 'I still want to cancel'.

You've seen them before: the UX ploys designed to trick you into spending money, or make it nearly impossible to unsubscribe. Here's what to look out for.

"While nutrition and food labelling is in the news, here's a thread about the nutrition information labels which are required to appear on prepacked food in the UK, and how they can be manipulated with increasingly absurd definitions of a "serving". Examples follow..."

Numerous dark patterns employed by the Trump campaign.

Amazon requires the user to turn on device notifications in order to use AmazonSmile.

I’m still not sure how to unsubscribe from care.com

A class action lawsuit was filed in June 2020, alleging that the New York Times has been violating California law by automatically renewing consumers’ subscriptions without proper authorization and making it “exceedingly difficult” to cancel existing subscriptions.

When a subscriber shares a link to an Airtable document, they are charged a year's subscription fee for each person a document is shared with. The charges are incurred without any notification or warning.

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

This coursera course looks free, which tempts users to register. Once they have registered, the website reveals that the course is not free.

Discount Tire Unsubscribe Dark Pattern? Here is default view.

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)

The New Yorker's consent preferences are unclear. The option for ‘Do Not Sell My Personal Information’ appears to be on, implying the user has selected not to have their information sold, but the instructions say to move it to the left to turn it off. This is confusing.

Udemy Course Dark Pattern for Price Discount, Happened on multiple courses as soon as I clicked buy now or log in it would go back to the original price, I heard they were stealing professors lectures as well and not compensating them or dealing with copyright well either.

Ryanair's text for subscribing to their mailing list says 'If you don't wish to receive these offers, please opt-out' but the tick box is checked by default. This is confusing for the user - do they need to leave the box checked, or uncheck, to opt out?

Look at this misleading crap from @CondeNast. The switch labeled "do not sell my personal info" actually needs to be switched to OFF to keep info private, only explained in the small print. And even though I clicked "do not sell" to get this popup, it's set to ON by default!

Tried out @yousician, but sadly hit right away with @darkpatterns. Tap "Start with free trial" (primes me that I'm not committing to anything yet), give finger ID (almost an habitual thing, as it's required for free apps too) and you just signed up to a 145 USD/y plan.

I've received an email from @netflix asking me to "finalise the signup" when I don't remember registering. Worried about the identity theft etc went to a chat & discovered this is a "PROMOTIONAL EMAIL".

When you press the menu icon the result seems to randomly switch between displaying the full menu where you can choose to open the song in Spotify, save it, or share it, and the Apple Music only pop-up. Sometimes you can press it multiple times & get only one result or the other.

Dark #UX pattern spotted on @yahoomail - ads are styled to look like unread emails, making it too easy for users to accidentally click on the ad and drive revenue to Yahoo and their advertisers.

@nntaleb Just saw this today. Tesla refunds in general should be easy to get electronically \& certainly through customer service. Will he addressed.

Elon @elonmusk, your Customer Support at Tesla is even worse than I claimed last time. It is an insult to your customers.

On the @NewYorker's site, there's a cookie setting literally called "Sell My Personal Information". If you disable it, it will auto-enable itself when you use the CTA to close the window! Absolutely egregious disregard for ethical UX.

I hate stuff like this, came across this one recently on @WishShopping. Also important to note, this only, modal comes up after you submit a form of checkboxes, where the last box resubscribes you to a weekly drip campaign

Very @darkpatterns example by @Microsoft? What are my options here? "Accept optional data..." as opposed to "Yes send optional data...". I wish not to send anything. Which option should I choose?

So, @outlook/@Microsoft wants me to manually un-check like 100 companies if I don't want them collecting my data... #privacy

Plusnet with their intentionally confusing language.

Facebook makes it hard for users to leave facebook via their browser's back button.

After hunting down the tiny link I was sure I had cancelled my @LinkedIn premium subscription last month. Turns out they switch the primary and secondary button so at a glance you think you are performing the opposite action

WTF @ICICIBank, why would I need life cover while transferring funds to a friend!

Trying to unsubscribe from @Yahoo/@verizonmedia

That Facebook and its #UX#darkpattern When you are on the web, it shows you a message that does not exist to download the messaging app, Hook Model in action.

A signup window for ClickUp says: 'Save 26 days per year. We analyzed the time saved by over 4,000 teams after switching to ClickUp. That's 624 hours back!' Underneath, the button for not signing up is labelled 'No, I want to waste 26 days'

Check out this gem. Change in standard answer, followed by double negative content.

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

Hey @RevolutApp. What's with the confusing, blatant dark pattern messaging here when I go to toggle targeted marketing? Why MUST you be so sneaky? Why? Why?

Amazon makes you click Into "Advanced Controls", move past a bunch of options of which none is $0.00, and then search for a plaintext link just to cancel your subscription.

Textbook example of @darkpatterns in Europe: @BogdanCovrig & I visited this webshop from three different browsers & they seem to personalize their timers to the specific browser call. No math.random(), but still curious. Days don’t change, just minutes & seconds.

iPhone users are nagged to sign up to Apple Pay

stop making people jump through the hoop! make these processes simple and straightforward!

When Apple makes me believe that the installation of iOS is not finished until I configure Apple Pay.

"Many streaming customers are unaware that the sitcom titles they prefer, the ads they do not skip, their email addresses and the serial numbers identifying the devices they use are being harvested and distributed."

Dark Pattern Games is a review site that analyses the Dark Patterns used by different games. It has a voting system and is meticulously put together.

One of the worst @darkpatterns I ever came across: Press allow notifications to verify that you are not a robot. When you decline it even redirects you to a different subdomain and asks you again.

See this #darkpattern all the time in cookie banners: the primary action is not 'confirm', but 'select + confirm all'

One of the many reasons I’m leaving @EE - pulling @darkpatterns like this. Go to buy more data (extortionately priced), choose “One-off” and a pop-up appears with “Monthly Recurring” as the prominent, highlighted option. Now I have to waste my time working out how to cancel…

In this series of in-depth articles, Investigative journalist Justin Elliott looks into the various manipulative and deceptive techniques that Intuit allegedly used in their Turbotax software.

On log in, you either accept marketing emails or cancel which logs you out. No way to opt out here. That’s not good UX @Gumtree #darkpattern

Ok this is really funny, check this out. I was in the process of booking a flight via @OneTravel. Trying to make me book ASAP, they claimed: "38 people are looking at this flight". Whoa

This #darkpattern pops up from time to time in the @Citi @Citibank mobile app. There's no way to dismiss the initial pop up, and when you try to say No Thanks on the next screen, you must confirm you're not interested.

"Add smart TVs to the growing list of home appliances guilty of surveilling people’s movements. A new study from Princeton University shows internet-connected TVs, which allow people to stream Netflix and Hulu, are loaded with data-hungry trackers."

Some more #darkpatterns here, by LinkedIn. You can either sync, or postpone for later.

@Touchnote has this gem on their pricing comparison page. One option is marked as "best value". The selected item promises $19.80 of savings. But...they are all the same price?

Here’s a ridiculous example of a deceptive dark pattern. Looks like advertising and analytics cookies are off by default, but the red button actually turns them on. You have to click «more options» to keep it disabled.

Hello @IKEAUK, this is from your self-service POS terminal. I don’t want to enter my post code, where am I supposed to press ‘No Thanks’ ?

You know what @NDTVFood, this doesn't give the greatest impression of your site.

check out this cursed shit i found on this site. it tells you to allow notifications to verify if your a human with a fake captcha. i only have seen the beyond burger site do this.

Shame on @Quora for implementing a dark pattern that forces me to download their app without an option to exit this horrible popup

Example of @darkpatterns. The page I wanted to view is hidden by an overlay asking permission to show a popup. I don't want that, but my only options are 'yes' and 'not now, maybe later'. Where is the 'no', @buienradar?

in Eventbrite's last step when you register for tickets. 'Go To My Tickets' not only signs you up for email marketing but it's already opt-in for you. Sneaky + interfering the interface.

Hey @Grammarly, kinda shitty UX trying to hide the button to cancel my subscription.

Nice @darkpatterns here @meteofrance: “j'accepte” doesn't save the current settings, it turns everything on and exits. To keep the selected settings you have to chose “je valide mes choix”