Dark patterns are user interface designs that make it difficult to cancel subscriptions, unsubscribe from marketing, adjust privacy settings, or comparison-shop. The FTC has sued multiple companies for dark pattern practices in the past two years and imposed significant fines. European regulators have gone further, requiring platforms to make opt-out options as prominent as opt-in choices.
Academic researchers have catalogued more than 200 distinct dark pattern techniques deployed by major apps and websites. The most common include hidden costs revealed only at checkout, confusing double-negative opt-out language in privacy menus, and countdown timers that create false urgency. New federal legislation proposed this session would make dark patterns an actionable unfair business practice with per-violation civil penalties.
