The Centre has asked e-commerce companies to not use “dark patterns” on their platforms that may deceive customers or manipulate their choices. The government has set up a 17-member task force to prepare guidelines to protect consumers. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution consulted stakeholders on this issue on June 13. Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar wrote to major e-commerce platforms on June 28. The Ministry has started classifying complaints received on the National Consumer Helpline 1915 to compile information on dark patterns, which can be used by the Central Consumer Protection Authority to initiate action under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019. What are dark patterns? Dark patterns, also known as deceptive patterns, is the term used to describe the ways in which websites or apps make their users do things that the users do not intend to do or would not otherwise do, as well as to discourage user behaviour that is not beneficial for the companies. The term dark patterns was coined by Harry Brignull, a London-based user experience (UX) designer, in 2010. The Internet is replete with examples of dark patterns. Think of that annoying advertisement that keeps popping up on your screen, and you can’t find the cross mark ‘X’ to make it go away because the mark is too small to notice (or to click/ tap). Worse, when you try to click/ tap on the tiny ‘X’, you sometimes end up tapping the ad instead. Certain dating apps require the user to type the word ‘delete’ if they want to delete their account permanently — the pop-up, showing ‘yes’ and ‘no’ options, has been done away with. Instagram allows users to deactivate their account through the app, but they must visit the website if they want to delete the account. Brignull told Wired magazine in an interview: “Lots of companies will make it hard for people to leave… They are going to get around to it eventually, but if they might stay for an extra 10 per cent of the time, or 20 per cent, the accounts might live just a little bit longer. And if you’re doing that en masse for hundreds of thousands of people, that translates to enormous amounts of money, for people who are going to leave anyway.” But many other instances of dark patterns aren’t as obvious, as a report by Vox noted. Numerous websites and apps trick their users into allowing them to track their location or gather their data. “Instagram”, the Vox report said, “uses terms like 'activity' and ‘personalised’ instead of ‘tracking’ and ‘targeting’, so the user may not realise what they’re actually giving the app permission to do.” How to spot dark patterns? The best and most effective way to recognise dark patterns is to educate yourself about the tricks used by websites and apps to influence your decisions. The website founded by Brignull (and now run, according to information on the site, by a team of legal scholars) deceptive.design (formerly darkpatterns.org) lists various types of dark patterns, and explains them in detail. Brignull told Wired: “If you know what cognitive biases are and the kind of tricks that can be used to change your mind to persuade you to do things, then you’re less likely to have them trick you”. The Consumer Affairs Ministry has identified nine types of dark patterns being used by e-commerce companies. Most of these are also listed on deceptive.design. * False urgency: Creates a sense of urgency or scarcity to pressure consumers into making a purchase or taking an action; * Basket sneaking: Dark patterns are used to add additional products or services to the shopping cart without the user’s consent; * Confirm shaming: Uses guilt to make consumers adhere; criticises or attacks consumers for not conforming to a particular belief or viewpoint; * Forced action: Pushes consumers into taking an action they may not want to take, such as signing up for a service in order to access content; * Nagging: Persistent criticism, complaints, and requests for action; * Subscription traps: Easy to sign up for a service but difficult to quit or cancel; option is hidden or requires multiple steps; * Bait & switch: Advertising a certain product/ service but delivering another, often of lower quality; * Hidden costs: Hiding additional costs until consumers are already committed to making a purchase; * Disguised ads: Designed to look like content, such as news articles or user-generated content. What are other governments doing? The United States and the United Kingdom have passed legislation to curb dark patterns. In March 2021, California passed amendments to the California Consumer Privacy Act, banning dark patterns that made it “difficult for consumers to exercise some of the rights that the law provides, like opting out of the sale of their data”, Vox reported. Earlier, in April 2019, the UK issued a set of guidelines — later made enforceable under its Data Protection Act, 2018 — which prohibited companies from using “nudges” to draw underage users into options that have low privacy settings. Companies have been sued for indulging in dark patterns behaviour. Last year, an Australian court fined Trivago, a part of US-based online travel firm Expedia Group, AUD44.7 million for falsely presenting “hotel rooms as being the cheapest available, when it was in fact promoting rooms of paid advertisers,” Reuters reported.
