Report Reveals Deceptive Patterns in Indian Apps

Context:

The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), in partnership with Parallel, a product design studio, has recently published a report detailing the widespread use of deceptive design patterns in major Indian applications. The study identifies the use of one or more of twelve specific deceptive or “dark” patterns that manipulate user behavior. These findings raise significant concerns about user experience and transparency, highlighting the need for regulatory scrutiny and possibly revised standards to ensure fair digital practices.

Relevance:

GS III: Science and Technology

Dimensions of the Article:

1. Dark Patterns in Digital Products
2. About Dark Patterns
3. Regulatory Framework Against Misleading Practices

Dark Patterns in Digital Products

• The ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India) study exposes several manipulative strategies used by Indian applications to influence user actions.
• This tactic uses color contrasts to direct user attention to specific choices, subtly guiding decisions while minimizing other options visually.
• It’s reported that a significant 45% of prominent Indian applications employ such tactics.
• This involves using guilt or social pressure to sway decisions, like presenting the option to “Upgrade now” as more sensible than opting out.
• Unwanted items are automatically added to shopping carts, such as charity donations, requiring users to opt-out actively.

Additional Deceptive Techniques

• Privacy Deception: Tricks users into disclosing more personal information than they intended.
• Drip Pricing: Gradually introduces additional fees throughout the transaction process.
• Subscription Trap: Entices users into recurring payments without clear acknowledgment of the terms.

Significance and Impact

• Raising Awareness: The study aims to alert marketers and designers to these deceptive practices that could be integrated unintentionally into app designs.
• Importance of Reviewing Guidelines: Encourages adherence to standards set by ASCI and the Department of Consumer Affairs to ensure fair digital practices.
• Tools for Ethical Design: Marketers are encouraged to use platforms like the Conscious Patterns website to evaluate their applications and obtain a “conscious score” to ensure user protection is balanced with business objectives.
• Need for Ethical Practices: Highlights the crucial role of designers and marketers in fostering ethical design in applications, emphasizing that responsibility often falls on specialized designers.

About Dark Patterns:

• In 2010, the British user experience researcher Harry Brignull introduced the term “dark patterns.”
  Although profit-driven dark patterns had started to emerge by then, consumers were not fully aware of the consequences related to their privacy, as well as the expenditure of their time, energy, and money.
• Examples of these dark patterns have now become widespread. They include the automatic selection of travel insurance when booking flight tickets, the obligatory requirement to provide email addresses or phone numbers to access e-commerce websites, which are subsequently used for unsolicited text messages or emails that are difficult to block, and birthday greetings designed to encourage users to purchase gifts for themselves.
• In today’s era, characterized as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, major internet technology companies have systematically amassed the behavioral data of digital users to market their own products or third-party offerings. This has resulted in profits that often surpass the combined Gross Domestic Products of multiple nations.

Global Efforts to regulate dark patterns:

• With a growing awareness of the excessive profit-driven tactics employed by online e-commerce, governments are rushing to establish regulations for this industry and its trading practices.

Efforts by India:

• The Indian guidelines provide specific instructions for recognizing and preventing deceptive tactics such as
  • false urgency,
  • stealthily adding items to a shopping cart (basket sneaking),
  • using guilt or pressure to manipulate decisions (confirm shaming),
  • compelling users into actions they may not want (forced action),
  • and ensnaring users in subscription traps on online platforms.
• According to a 2021 report from the Advertising Standards Council of India, it was estimated that more than half of e-commerce websites employed these dark patterns to promote their products.
• Up until now, India’s initiatives to oversee this industry have primarily focused on preventing tax evasion and safeguarding the concerns of traditional physical retailers.

Regulatory Framework Against Misleading Practices

Prohibition of Misleading Practices

• Ban on misleading or coercive dark patterns.
• Encouragement for ethical sales and user retention strategies.

Scope of Application

• Applicability to all Indian platforms in the commerce sector, including advertisers and sellers.
• Inclusion of e-commerce, websites, and apps under the guidelines.

Identified Dark Patterns (as per CCPA Notification)

• Creating unwarranted urgency or scarcity to prompt immediate purchases.
• Non-consensual addition of items at checkout leading to increased payments.
• Employing fear or shame to manipulate user decisions for profit.
• Mandating additional purchases or personal data sharing.
• Overcomplicating subscription cancellation and obscuring options.
• User interface manipulation to deviate users from their initial intent.
• Providing misleading outcomes contrary to advertised promises based on user interactions.
• Initial price concealment, with post-confirmation disclosure or conditional service access.
• Disguising ads as other content to deceive users into engaging.
• Constant disruptive interactions aimed at profit.
• Intentionally using perplexing language to confuse users.
• Inducing recurring payments under SaaS models.
• Deceiving users into purchasing unnecessary malware removal services through ransomware or scareware.

-Source: The Hindu