In 2016, a Pew Research Center survey reflected Americans' feelings of powerlessness toward data privacy. Fast forward to 2023, and a majority express concern and a limited understanding of how their data is used. The absence of comprehensive federal privacy laws in the U.S. has led to a "wild west" scenario. Dark patterns, subtle coercion tactics for user consent, persist despite regulatory commitments. Companies exploit loopholes, leaving users with limited control. In response, users resort to apps to block cookie notices, but this comes with its own set of challenges, contributing to what is termed "notification fatigue." The struggle for data privacy persists amid a landscape of evolving methods and legal gaps.

Dark patterns, prevalent in interface design, manipulate users into unintended actions, such as agreeing to excessive data collection. The proposed narrative serious game utilizes seven game-adapted dark patterns to raise awareness and build resistance against these tactics. Through a qualitative study, they explored player behavior when confronted with these adaptations, providing insights into integrating dark patterns into gameplay and the resulting player dynamics.

In this workshop, participants addressed the pervasive issue of "dark patterns" in digital design—deceptive, manipulative practices impacting user autonomy. Human-computer interaction scholars have laid the groundwork, defining types and harms. The focus was on actionable steps: (i) refining detection methodologies, (ii) characterizing harms, and (iii) crafting effective countermeasures. By connecting scholarship to legal and design communities, the goal was to influence legislation and foster ethical digital practices.

This study explores the use of dark patterns in interface design, focusing on their manipulation of user actions, particularly in obtaining consent for extensive data collection. Introducing a narrative serious game with seven game-adapted dark patterns, they have aimed to enhance awareness and resistance. Through a qualitative, exploratory study, they investigated player behavior when confronted with these adapted patterns. Thematic analysis reveals insights into factors influencing pattern adaptation in gameplay, as well as motivations and driving forces shaping player behavior.

This paper explores interpretable dark pattern auto-detection in e-commerce interfaces, leveraging BERT, a transformer-based language model. By training the model on a text-based dataset, they identified deceptive designs and employ post-hoc explanation techniques like LIME and SHAP to unveil the terms influencing each dark pattern prediction. Their findings, aimed at preventing user manipulation, offer insights into constructing more equitable internet services.

Dark patterns, deceptive techniques ingrained within interfaces, exert substantial influence, altering users' choices and autonomy online. They're notably effective within mobile applications, particularly mobile gaming, leveraging fast, heuristic decision-making (System 1, Kahneman). Beyond individual impact, these practices raise concerns about broader societal consequences, questioning our collective relationship with technology when misaligned with human interests. This communication aims to outline existing regulatory frameworks governing dark patterns, pinpointing their limitations. Additionally, it seeks sustainable regulatory solutions that account for human cognitive limits. By bridging these gaps, our goal is to establish a regulatory landscape prioritizing user autonomy and ethical use of technology in the digital domain.

In the digital landscape, consumer autonomy faces unprecedented challenges due to the pervasive use of dark patterns. These subtle manipulative tactics alter online choice architectures, steering users towards decisions not aligned with their preferences. Traditional information-based approaches fall short in addressing this issue. The book takes a novel approach, merging transparent information and fair digital design. Through a comparative study spanning data protection, consumer, and competition law, they aim to integrate legal rules with ethical design principles. This inclusive methodology considers non-legal insights, creating pragmatic and global regulatory paths to safeguard digital consumer autonomy effectively.

Within the digital landscape, the regulation of exploitative practices targeting consumer behavioral biases poses a critical challenge in EU policymaking. Despite its prevalence in discussions, the concept of exploitation lacks a precise legal definition, especially concerning online choice architectures. This article seeks to rectify this ambiguity by proposing an autonomy-focused theory of exploitation. Departing from traditional welfare analysis, the aim is to align EU consumer law with the preservation of consumer autonomy rather than solely optimizing market efficiency. By establishing clearer parameters for exploitation in online contexts, this framework aims to strengthen regulatory measures in safeguarding consumers within the evolving digital marketplace.

The research investigates the transformation of privacy dialogs on 911 US and EU news and media websites in the 18 months following the GDPR implementation. The researchers observed a positive trend: an increase in privacy dialogs offering clear choices to accept or reject tracking, accompanied by a decrease in manipulative nudges. This shift suggests that external interventions, such as government guidance, may prompt websites to improve GDPR compliance and make it easier for users to reject tracking.

In this research, they have delved into the pervasive issue of Dark User Interface (DUI) patterns within mobile apps, particularly focusing on China's mobile ecosystem. The systematic investigation reveals the prevalence of deceptive UI designs that can mislead users into unintended actions. With a taxonomy of DUI patterns and analysis of top mobile apps, they highlight the urgent need for better regulation and user awareness to mitigate potential harm caused by these deceptive practices.