Deceptive Patterns - Hall of Shame
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Browse examples of deceptive patterns used by companies to mislead, trick and trap users.
  • LvxferreEnglish
    42•4 months ago

    As I mentioned in another thread, at the end of the day those patterns all boil down to exploiting some asymmetry between the user and the system. For example:

    • Users eventually get tired into compliance. The system doesn’t.
    • Users are prone to emotional manipulation. The system doesn’t.
    • Users don’t have full knowledge of the system. The system does.
    • Users can’t dictate the terms. The system does.
    • etc.

    (“System” in this case means “the product, who designed it, and who sells it”.)

  • peopleproblemsEnglish
    19•4 months ago

    Wall Street Journal requires it users to go on a date with a reporter to cancel its subscription

    Fuck yes. I’m getting me a WSJ subscription. I haven’t gotten a date in… A while

    • LvxferreEnglish
      4•4 months ago

      Pfft, I’m glad that this type of roach motel is illegal where I live. And it has been like this for almost two decades. (The law is actually really simple - if a continuous service can be acquired through a certain mean, the same mean must allow its cancellation.)

  • @Chip_RatEnglish
    8•4 months ago

    Simple example from yesterday: My stupid pixel 8 phone has a green line on the screen. I look up how to get warrantee and think “wow, at least Google knowing everything about me will be helpful in this case” and after a few misdirects to garbage online user forum to try and get me to solve this problem myself I get prompted with “which device is the problem?”

    Google pixel 8

    Some camera I had but was stolen, and google knows this because they refused to replace it even though I went through the bother to report it stolen to police because they claim they will send a new one

    So I click the phone next page says “this phone?” -serial number

    Click

    That you bought on this date from us?

    Click

    Good news it’s under warranty! Would you like to start the process?

    Thought I’d already started it but… Click

    Please enter the serial number or IMwhatever code. Click here for instructions on where to find this on your phone.

    … Click back 2 pages, copy and paste the # they told me

    WRONG CODE

    take the space that was at the front for some reason

    Great! Here are the next steps…

    Me: wtf is this garbage…

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]English
    2•4 months ago

    Samsung sent me a notification to accept the new terms and conditions. The form was designed in a way to trick you to accept all the terms, including optional marketing ones… took me ages to find out how I can change my answers

    I keep closing the pop-up, curious what’s going to happen if I never accept Samsung’s new terms and conditions.