Online Users Reduction News Today

“Dark patterns” describes online interfaces in websites designed to manipulate users into taking actions they otherwise would not.

Sen. Mark Warner is leading a bipartisan push in both houses of Congress to bar online companies to create interfaces that obscure, subvert or impair users’ decision-making or choice in giving consent to access their data.

The Deceptive Experiences to Online Users Reduction Act would prohibit large online platforms from using deceptive dark patterns.

On April 29, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hosted a virtual Bringing Dark Patterns to Light,” to examine “dark patterns.” In her opening remarks, Acting FTC Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter broadly described “dark patterns” as “user interface designs that manipulate users into taking unintended actions that may not be in their interests.” Chairwoman Slaughter highlighted several examples of dark patterns, including confusing cancellation procedures that force users t...

You may not recognize the term dark patterns, but you’ve probably seen enough manipulative interfaces to get the idea. A user experience in a site, app, or gadget is constructed to herd customers into following a company’s dictates, even if those will cost people their money or data. Now one of Washington’s consumer regulators is asking how the public sector could address this private-sector plague. advertisement advertisement At the Federal Trade Commission’s “Bringing Dark Patterns...