Dark patterns in consumer marketing exploit cognitive biases, steering individuals towards decisions that conflict with their genuine preferences. These manipulative tactics, designed by digital platforms, compromise consumers' autonomy for economic gain. This study exposes these covert strategies, advocates for regulatory reforms under the Consumer Protection Act of 2019 in India, and aims to safeguard consumers from the deleterious impact of dark patterns.

This research investigates the impact of dark design patterns on user experience within internet and mobile applications. Dark patterns, manipulative strategies employed by system owners, pose risks by coercing users into sharing excessive personal information or engaging in unintended subscriptions. Through a literature review, this study aims to identify prevalent dark patterns, examine their effects on user behavior, and discuss the ethical implications in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Despite limitations, this research offers valuable insights into these exploitative tactics and their implications for user experience.

In today's digital landscape, AI-powered deceptive design strategies subtly manipulate user decisions online, exploiting psychological patterns. The urgency to address these risks has prompted scrutiny under the EU's AI Act Proposal, particularly Article 5(1). This article emphasizes the crucial balance between innovation and safeguarding user autonomy. It delves into the dynamics of psychological manipulation, advocating for effective regulation to counter deceptive practices and maintain user agency amid technological advancements.

In the digital landscape, advertisements play a pivotal role, but their impact on blind users navigating websites with screen readers has been a largely unexplored territory. Through interviews with 18 blind participants, our study revealed a significant challenge: blind users are often misled by ads seamlessly integrated into the web page content. Conventional ad blockers face resistance, compelling us to devise an algorithm for automatic identification of contextually deceptive ads. Our multi-modal model, incorporating both handcrafted and automatically extracted features, demonstrated remarkable effectiveness with F1 scores of 0.86 and 0.88 on test datasets and real-world websites, respectively. This research sheds light on the nuanced experiences of blind users and introduces a practical solution to enhance their online interactions by addressing the deceptive nature of visually designed ads.

This study addresses the privacy risks posed by browser cookies, particularly third-party ones, through a personalized cookie banner. Semistructured interviews, identified user attitudes and requirements. The subsequent online experiment evaluated a personalized privacy assistant, a non-personalized version, and a standard website cookie banner. Results showed both versions of the novel banner significantly reduced accepted cookies and improved usability compared to the standard banner. Importantly, the personalized variant outperformed the non-personalized, emphasizing the efficacy of tailoring cookie banners to users' privacy knowledge for informed choices and enhanced privacy protection.

Since the coining of "dark patterns" in 2010, these deceptive design practices have faced heightened scrutiny, especially in relation to online services. The emergence of government actions and legal battles against digital companies prompts a critical question: when do consent and cancellation processes become dark patterns? A recent webinar hosted by the ABA Antitrust Law Section delved into this, featuring experts discussing criteria for spotting dark patterns. The discussion centered on how regulators evaluate advertising behavior, the existence of reasonable standards, and the role of empirical evidence in discerning potential disparate effects on consumers. This event aimed to illuminate the complexities of dark patterns, offering insights into their identification within the digital realm.

The study explores UX dark patterns, deceptive UI designs prevalent in online services. Building upon previous work addressing dark patterns from the designer's and policymaker's perspectives, the paper proposes an end-user-empowerment approach. This aims to raise user awareness of dark patterns, help them understand design intents, and empower them to counter these effects using web augmentation. The two-phase co-design study, comprising five workshops and a two-week technology probe, delves into user needs, preferences, and challenges, offering insights into their reactions to empowered awareness and actions in a realistic in-situ setting.

The study on e-commerce dark patterns reveals a significant inclination among participants (195 adults aged 19 to 53) to select products with manipulative tactics, particularly the potent limited-time message dark pattern. Age plays a role, with older individuals showing heightened vulnerability. Despite exploring video- and activity-based interventions, their effectiveness remains unclear. The onus is on companies to foster a transparent and ethical consumer environment by refraining from dark pattern usage. This study underscores the urgent need for a collective effort to mitigate the unintended consequences of manipulative design in digital commerce.

In the realm of digital interfaces, the prevalence of deceptive design, often referred to as "Dark Patterns," is on the rise. While existing research has explored user perceptions of these manipulative tactics, there is a notable dearth of studies examining the potential impact on users' mental health. This paper seeks to identify vulnerable user demographics and formulate research questions to initiate discourse on the potential adverse effects of Dark Patterns on mental well-being. By addressing this gap, the paper aims to pave the way for a more nuanced understanding of the ethical considerations surrounding deceptive design in user experience.

In the wake of the AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC Supreme Court decision limiting the FTC's ability to seek monetary relief, concerns about regulating online "dark patterns" persist. Dark patterns are deceptive online interfaces that trap users into unwanted actions. This Note argues for an FTC rule to define and prohibit dark patterns, benefiting consumers, regulators, and businesses by providing clarity, better enforcement tools, and protection against deceptive online practices. As online reliance grows, the FTC's regulatory approach must adapt to protect consumers and maintain a fair marketplace.