It's pretty easy to spot dark patterns when you look out for them, but I found a pretty obvious example of this.

Stoofie is a brand that sells water fountains for your pet (I don't know what the problem with a water bowl is, but I digress). WayBack Machine

Plastered at the top of their website is "33% OFF Ends Today- Free Shipping" with no way to dismiss it. There is a scrolling text under the main image "FAST AND FREE SHIPPING 60-DAY FREE RETURNS"

If you scroll down, you're immediately introduced with a product with the option to buy two preselected. The rest of this section explains itself:

Show

Other things are sprinkled in the main page, but it really is the prime example of dark patterns. I am personally sick of finding them, but would love to see more examples of what others have found. Please, share your favorite examples of dark patterns. Don't forget to archive them first so they can never be lived down.

  • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip
    ·
    1 month ago

    Most cookie consent dialogues:

    1. There’s only one big accept button
    2. If the decline button even exists, it’s grey whereas the other one is green.
    3. The decline option could be buried deep under other menus.
    4. The sizes of the buttons

    Most companies are trying to actively manipulate you to accept all cookies, but nowadays there are a few companies that don’t resort to any of these dirty tricks.

    • Samsy@lemmy.ml
      ·
      1 month ago

      The one that scares me the most is:

      Accept all or Settings

      And you have to opt out 5-10 buttons and at the end there is a "save settings" or the "accept all" button again in green.

      Who has time for this shit? Just for a stupid article? We need laws against these.

      • Miss Millie@lemmy.ml
        ·
        1 month ago

        That's actually a nightmare

        Who has time for this shit? Just for a stupid article?

        Won't using reader mode ( if your browser supports it ) help you avoid this ? or those browser add-ons like " I don't care about cookies "

      • TranquilTurbulence@lemmy.zip
        ·
        1 month ago

        Oh I remember those thoroughly cursed menus where you have to manually disable 256 cookies one by one. Haven’t seen those in a while though, so I guess some piece of legislation is doing its job.

    • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
      ·
      1 month ago

      Yeah, EU fixed that somewhat, it has to be privacy-by-default now, the save choice being pre-selected and obvious and etc. But most dialogues are now illegal; no legal entity complains, nobody fixes it.