He/Him; Senior Software Developer, IT Swiss-army-knife, 3 programming blades, 1 hardware, 1 networking and infrastructure and a corkscrew. The tweezers have long since been lost. (Recent ADHD diag.)
Some UX patterns meant to 'in good will' promote specific better choices could, in different circumstances be considered dark patterns when used to benefit the designer at the expense of the end user.
Legislation should be a last resort and must be carefully considered. Also it must err on the side of permissiveness and risk some bad actors to escape consequences rather than incorrectly punish those not acting in bad faith. (allow for false negatives and not false positives in identifying breaches.) If and When the uncaught breaches are beyond what is socially allowable, then small revisions to the statute can be made to account for those while still attempting to prevent casting too wide a net.
Because this is related to each person's subjective experience, the amount of grey area is very wide. "I know a dark pattern when I see it" level wide. Thus it should be treated with a similarly nuanced approach.
As others have said, Name & Shame is good, education to the users to identify and avoid the patterns and the organizations that insist on them.
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
We're a place where coders share, stay up-to-date and grow their careers.
I think it's complicated,
Some UX patterns meant to 'in good will' promote specific better choices could, in different circumstances be considered dark patterns when used to benefit the designer at the expense of the end user.
Legislation should be a last resort and must be carefully considered. Also it must err on the side of permissiveness and risk some bad actors to escape consequences rather than incorrectly punish those not acting in bad faith. (allow for false negatives and not false positives in identifying breaches.) If and When the uncaught breaches are beyond what is socially allowable, then small revisions to the statute can be made to account for those while still attempting to prevent casting too wide a net.
Because this is related to each person's subjective experience, the amount of grey area is very wide. "I know a dark pattern when I see it" level wide. Thus it should be treated with a similarly nuanced approach.
As others have said, Name & Shame is good, education to the users to identify and avoid the patterns and the organizations that insist on them.