Prevention and regulation of 13 Dark Patterns in India.

On December 8th 2023, Government of India passed an act to prevent the dark practices around e-commerce to prevent “unfair trade practices” defined under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

Following are some personally experienced examples which I certainly have discussed with friends and families casually over past few years. But now is the time to wear UX hat and analyze the dark patterns in detail.

Let’s delve right in…

1: False Urgency

means falsely stating or implying the sense of urgency or scarcity so as to mislead a user into making an immediate purchase or taking an immediate action.

Have you ever been in a situation where you bought something because it was available for a limited time or availability was low? Then you’ve found yourself as a victim of False Urgency.

Here the seats available for me to pick during seat selection were more than three. That means “3 seats left” is not adding the math.

2: Basket Sneaking

means inclusion of additional items such as products, services, payments to charity or donation at the time of checkout from a platform, without the consent of the user

Have you ever been in a situation where you added 1 item in the cart but proactively website adding additional items assuming either you will most likely buy it as a bundle or by adding a service to make it a deal? Then you’ve found yourself as a victim of Basket Sneaking.

I just added one item to cart. But later during at the time of checkout there were two items. And one of them was automatically added by the website.

3: Confirm Shaming

means using a phrase, video, audio or any other means to create a sense of fear or shame or ridicule or guilt in the mind of the user so as to nudge the user to act in a certain way

Have you ever been in a situation where the website shamed you for not using their pro services or while not taking an insurance for tickets, the website emotionally blackmail you? Then you’ve found yourself as a victim of Confirm Shaming.

Ticketmaster has a lot of dark patterns, here they are creating a fear with an urgency(Time remaining 06:26) for me to take the insurance.

4: Forced Action

mean forcing a user into taking an action that would require the user to buy any additional goods or subscribe or sign up for an unrelated service or share personal information in order to buy or subscribe to the product or service originally intended by the user.

This is a classic one. Big giant companies have been forcing the users to do things in a certain way. Initially we resist but then we get used to things. Eventually forget the struggle.

It is self explanatory. Interestingly it’s not the first time they have done it. It’s a pattern. When Apple removed the 3.5 mm jack from iPhone there was only one lightning port. Either one can charge the phone or use existing wired headsets. Forcing one to switch to wireless.

5: Subscription Trap

means the process of making the instructions related to cancellation of subscription ambiguous, latent, confusing, cumbersome.

Have you ever been in a situation where you are bombarded with unwanted emails and gave up during the process of unsubscribing? Then you’ve found yourself as a victim of Subscription Trap.

This is the most cumbersome process out of all the memberships I have ever encountered. While taking the membership I was able to do it in minutes. But at the time of unsubscribing I had to mail(not email, mail) them a form. And it took me several days to stop the subscription.

6: Interface Interference

means a design element that manipulates the user interface in ways that (a) highlights certain specific information; and (b) obscures other relevant information relative to the other information; to misdirect a user from taking an action as desired.

Have you ever been in a situation where you had a hard time looking for the relevant information(For example recipe)? Then you’ve found yourself as a victim of Interface Interference.

This one was hilarious. I guess not explication needed. 100% interference by not relevant information.

7: Bait and Switch

means the practice of advertising a particular outcome based on the user’s action but deceptively serving an alternate outcome.

Have you ever been in a situation where you added the item (for example shoes) in the cart but at the time to checkout it was not available. But as a courtesy another similar item was offered? Then you’ve found yourself as a victim of Bait and Switch dark pattern.

Here the expectation is that the green area is the original content and white area is left blank. Unfortunately, white area is a bait that opens up an advertisement as well.

8: Drip Pricing

means a practice whereby elements of prices are not revealed upfront or are revealed surreptitiously within the user experience.

Have you ever been in a situation where you expected x amount + few taxes but instead ended up paying x*2? Then you’ve found yourself as a victim of Drip Pricing. This is one of the most common dark UX practice to lure the customers to buy the products or services. Even in the United States it qualifies as Junk Fees.

I mean how is the world I am paying more than double the actual cost of the admission price. All the fees listed here excluding taxes are shared between even owner and Ticketmaster. Why owner’s fee is not included as part of admission price? To make it look less expensive…

9: Disguised Advertisement

means a practice of posing, masking advertisements as other types of content such as user generated content or new articles or false advertisements, which are designed to blend in with the rest of an interface in order to trick customers into clicking on them.

This is a smart one. Have you ever been in a situation where you are reading a post in an app one after the other and suddenly while reading the current post realized it’s an advertisement? Then you’ve found yourself as a victim of Disguised Advertisement.

Hard to imagine companies like BestBuy practices such dark patterns. First card is the original content where are second and third are pure advertisements.

You can challenge me saying “Hey, they have labeled those cards as advertisement” so it doesn't qualify. But let me tell you the truth, it so small that it can go unnoticed. Also, technically it is not even visible. It fails ADA standards.

10: Nagging

means a dark pattern practice due to which a user is disrupted and annoyed by repeated and persistent interactions.

This is the annoying one. Have you ever been in a situation where you have been asked million times to install an app or accept cookies or asked to signup? Then you’ve found yourself as a victim of Nagging.

I am already on the checkout page and I want to buy tickets but still after couple of minutes I was asked to make the purchase. I think this can also fall under “Confirm shaming”…

11: Trick Question

means the deliberate use of confusing or vague language like confusing wording, double negatives, or other similar tricks, in order to misguide or misdirect a user from taking desired action.

This one qualifies under creative marketing copy as well. Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted to unsubscribe but ended up subscribing to more services? Then you’ve found yourself as a victim of Trick Question.

All I wanted was to “opt out from all Groupon email”. Instead I was asked another question with not so easy options…

12: Saas Billing

refers to the process of generating and collecting payments from consumers on a recurring basis in a software as a service (SaaS) business model by exploiting positive acquisition loops in recurring subscriptions to get money from users as surreptitiously as possible.

Have you ever been in a situation where you realized you are unintentionally paying monthly subscription fee for a service from past couple of months? Then you’ve found yourself as a victim of Saas Billing.

It may seem okay, but it’s actually not. The problem is not about charging for paid services. The problem is about not notifying the users that in x number of days they will be charged for a service.

13: Rouge Malwares

means using a ransomware or scareware to mislead or trick user into believing there is a virus on their computer.

Have you ever been in a situation where you clicked to install an antivirus via a website as your machine is infected? Then you’ve found yourself as a victim of Rouge Malwares.

Here the user wanted to go a website of a product but instead was redirected to another website. And the website asked to start the repair process. I mean really…

Conclusion

It’s encouraging that the Government of India has taken a proactive step by updating the list of Dark Patterns. Once integrated into the law, compliance becomes mandatory, as non-compliance could result in penalties, damage to brand reputation, etc. It’s the responsibility of each individual to understand what is illegal and speak out to rectify it. It’ll be intriguing to observe how Indian companies address dark patterns and integrate these changes into their existing frameworks.

This is a brief overview of the guidelines. I strongly recommend referring to the comprehensive and detailed guidelines provided in the references below.

From now on, I’ll be more vigilant about dark UX practices in my surroundings.

References

Press Release: 2023 Dark Patterns, The Gazette of India: Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns 2023.