Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Examining How Users Perceive And Respond To Dark Patterns, Vicky Chung, Dominique Kelly, Jacquelyn Burkell

FIMS Publications

Dark patterns are user interface (UI) design elements that influence users to take actions that benefit an online service and that are generally not in the user’s best interest. Studies show that users demonstrate some awareness of and ability to identify dark patterns. Users also report experiencing negative emotions such as annoyance when encountering these tactics online. Yet, while users may abstractly understand that dark patterns exist, there is a disconnect between this understanding and their behavioural responses to manipulative design. Research has experimentally determined that dark patterns are effective at influencing users’ behaviour across different online activities, including consenting …

Identifying And Responding To Privacy Dark Patterns, Dominique Kelly, Jacquelyn Burkell

FIMS Publications

Privacy dark patterns are user interface design strategies intended to “nudge” users to reveal personal data, either directly or by enabling (or failing to disable) privacy-invasive platform/profile settings. Examples of privacy dark patterns on social media include defaults that enable the public display of posted content, warnings that follow attempts to reject personalized ads, and hidden “skip” buttons that make it more challenging to decline privacy-undermining requests such as to sync contacts.

Our project aims to minimize the impact of privacy dark patterns on Canadian youth. Building on our prior research documenting the use of these strategies on five social …

Approaches To Regulating Privacy Dark Patterns, Matthew Gaulton, Dominique Kelly, Jacquelyn Burkell

FIMS Publications

In this paper, we will evaluate new bills slated to replace the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and offer stronger privacy dark pattern protections to Canadians.

Existing scholarship in the realm of privacy law, such as “Deceptive Design and Ongoing Consent in Privacy Law” by Jeremy Wiener and “Privacy Dark Patterns: A Case for Regulatory Reform in Canada” by Ademola Adeyoju, primarily focuses on creating frameworks for understanding privacy dark patterns in the law and explaining the pitfalls and legal inadequacies surrounding dark pattern legislation in Canada.

However, the aim of this paper diverges significantly. While acknowledging …

Identifying Dark Patterns In User Account Disabling Interfaces: Content Analysis Results, Dominique Kelly, Victoria L. Rubin

FIMS Publications

Dark patterns are user interface (UI) strategies deliberately designed to influence users to perform actions or make choices that benefit online service providers. This mixed methods study examines dark patterns employed by social networking sites (SNSs) with the intent to deter users from disabling accounts. We recorded our attempts to disable experimental accounts in 25 SNSs drawn from Alexa’s 2020 Top Sites list. As a result of our systematic content analysis of the recordings, we identified major types of dark patterns (Complete Obstruction, Temporary Obstruction, Obfuscation, Inducements to Reconsider, and Consequences) and unified them into a conceptual model, based on …

Documenting Privacy Dark Patterns: How Social Networking Sites Influence Users’ Privacy Choices, Dominique Kelly, Jacquelyn Burkell

FIMS Publications

Dark patterns are user interface (UI) design strategies intended to influence users to make choices or perform actions that benefit online services. This study examines the dark patterns employed by social networking sites (SNSs) to influence users to make privacy-invasive choices. We documented the privacy dark patterns encountered in attempts to register an account, configure account settings, and log in and out for five SNSs popular among American teenagers (Discord, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat). Based on our observations, we present a typology consisting of three major types of privacy dark patterns (Obstruction, Obfuscation, and Pressure) and 10 subtypes. These …

“Be A Pattern For The World”: The Development Of A Dark Patterns Detection Tool To Prevent Online User Loss, Jordan Donnelly, Alan Downley, Yunpeng Liu, Yufei Su, Quanwei Sun, Lan Zeng, Andrea Curley, Damian Gordon, Paul Kelly, Dympna O'Sullivan, Anna Becevel

Articles

Dark Patterns are designed to trick users into sharing more information or spending more money than they had intended to do, by configuring online interactions to confuse or add pressure to the users. They are highly varied in their form, and are therefore difficult to classify and detect. Therefore, this research is designed to develop a framework for the automated detection of potential instances of web-based dark patterns, and from there to develop a software tool that will provide a highly useful defensive tool that helps detect and highlight these patterns.

Shedding Light On Dark Patterns: A Case Study On Digital Harms, Noreen Y. Whysel

Publications and Research

You’ve been there before. You thought you could trust someone with a secret. You thought it would be safe, but found out later that they blabbed to everyone. Or maybe they didn’t share it, but the way they used it felt manipulative. You gave more than you got and it didn’t feel fair. But now that it’s out there, do you even have control anymore?

Ok. Now imagine that person was your supermarket. Or your bank. Or your boss.

As designers of digital spaces for consumer products and services, how often do we consider the relationship we have with our …