Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll • Hacker News Board

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#21

Post by noxToken » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:43 PM UTC

grenoire wrote: post #17

joeblau wrote: post #13

I'm wondering if there would be any value in an Anti-Dark Pattern plugin? Basically a browser plugin that un-does all of the dark patterns companies use to try and trick people and give you a straight result.

The amount of work put into it may not necessarily be worth it the gains, given how many different websites there are with varying implementations of these patterns.

Make it open source, and the community will probably maintain it. I'm sure that if a list of sites were given, fixes for the dark patterns would be submitted regularly.

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#22

Post by ivraatiems » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:44 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #2

Not just the web either. This morning Cortana turned green and said "Oh hey!" in my taskbar. I clicked it and it gave me the regular interface - there was no alert or anything, they just wanted to boost their Cortana interaction numbers for the day. That's wasting my time and making it less likely that I will pay attention if there is an actual alert later.

I can't stand Cortana. I honestly, genuinely don't want to talk to my computer. I realize I might be in the minority on that, but I actually type fast enough and know what I'm doing enough not to need to ask an "assistant" to do it for me. Unless and until my computer is Samantha from Her, I don't need to talk to it.

What's worse, Cortana has ruined Windows search. Searching from the Start Menu is way less expansive and useful in 10 than was in Windows 7. (I never used 8, so I can't comment there.) It's like it's punishing me for not using something that breaks how I want to work anyway.

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#23

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:44 PM UTC

EGreg wrote: post #3

The site itself has a dark css theme. Made reading about "dark patterns" that much scarier. It's actually an interesting phenomenon -- how the experience is changed by the site you read it on.

[deleted]

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#24

Post by wldcordeiro » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:44 PM UTC

someone7x wrote: post #12

The thing about dark patterns is that feels like an abuse of the commons. Because of scummy practices like this I am absolutely less willing to explore a site that requests my email, or buy something from a random site (I just see if it's on amazon and buy it there). For example, a few days ago there was a Show HN about PlateJoy, which sounded really interesting. But, the only way I could learn about it was to enter…

Yep, AllTrails recently went with a dark-pattern, want to see any info on the trail? Sign-up. If you don't you'll get a brief flash of the detail page before redirecting to a sign-up form.

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#25

Post by bitL » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:46 PM UTC

SNvD7vEJ wrote: post #18

Adobe flash update notification always have the McAfee Antivirus trial installer pre-selected by default. Pisses me off every time.

That means you already have Chrome or Google Toolbar. McAfee is only second on the list ;-)

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#26

Post by mtgx » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:47 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #2

Not just the web either. This morning Cortana turned green and said "Oh hey!" in my taskbar. I clicked it and it gave me the regular interface - there was no alert or anything, they just wanted to boost their Cortana interaction numbers for the day. That's wasting my time and making it less likely that I will pay attention if there is an actual alert later.

Pretty much all privacy-related settings in Windows 10 use dark patterns. And they've just made it much harder to disable Cortana in the upcoming Anniversary Update.

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#27

Post by p49k » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:48 PM UTC

noxToken wrote: post #19

LeonM wrote: post #9

What about those 'free' WiFi access points that require you to login with Facebook for 'prevention of abuse', and then abuse your Facebook account by posting you were there.

Do you have an example of that? That can't be a thing.

https://cloud4wi.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/200537826-Soc...

There's also http://socialwifi.com, not sure if they provide an option to spam the user's timeline or not.

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#28

Post by sp332 » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:49 PM UTC

ivraatiems wrote: post #22

sp332 wrote: post #2

Not just the web either. This morning Cortana turned green and said "Oh hey!" in my taskbar. I clicked it and it gave me the regular interface - there was no alert or anything, they just wanted to boost their Cortana interaction numbers for the day. That's wasting my time and making it less likely that I will pay attention if there is an actual alert later.

I can't stand Cortana. I honestly, genuinely don't want to talk to my computer. I realize I might be in the minority on that, but I actually type fast enough and know what I'm doing enough not to need to ask an "assistant" to do it for me. Unless and until my computer is Samantha from Her , I don't need to talk to it. What's worse, Cortana has ruined Windows search. Searching from the Start Menu is way less expansive…

So, just type then? I use Cortana to set reminders occasionally, but I can't remember the last time I used the voice interface. My PC at home doesn't even have a microphone.

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#29

Post by ivraatiems » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:53 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #28

ivraatiems wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't stand Cortana. I honestly, genuinely don't want to talk to my computer. I realize I might be in the minority on that, but I actually type fast enough and know what I'm doing enough not to need to ask an "assistant" to do it for me. Unless and until my computer is Samantha from Her , I don't need to talk to it. What's worse, Cortana has ruined Windows search. Searching from the Start Menu is way less expansive…

So, just type then? I use Cortana to set reminders occasionally, but I can't remember the last time I used the voice interface. My PC at home doesn't even have a microphone.

Oh yeah, I do. The problem is that Cortana has supplanted basic search functionality. As far as I can tell, when you type a search in the Start menu you're still going through Cortana, technically (that's why she's always running even when she's turned off from listening to you). Cortana has access to a limited subset of your computer. She can't search things outside your C:\Users\[your username] directory. Regular Windows Search doesn't have that limitation, but to get to regular search you have to explicitly go looking for it now.

So while I used to be able to search for a folder on my D:\ drive by hitting start and typing its name, now I have to either go to the actual Windows Search, or navigate to the folder manually. Even if that folder is indexed in Windows Search, and I have full permissions on it.

Re: Dark Patterns are designed to confuse and enroll

#30

Post by MrZeus » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:53 PM UTC

noxToken wrote: post #11

AVG had (possibly still does) a dark pattern with their free AV software, and I fell for it once. I was in the middle of a game when the stupid ad for Web TuneUp[0] appeared from my task bar over the screen. The linked image is exactly how it appeared with the auto-confirm box pre-checked. In a rush to dismiss the ad to get back to my match, I accidentally clicked the OK button instead of the tiny decline. Of course,…

+10! I have been hating this exact thing about AVG for months.