Beware of Dark Patterns: The Hidden Tricks Used by Websites and Apps
Every day, billions of people browse websites, shop online, install apps, subscribe to digital services, and accept terms and conditions—often without realizing that many digital platforms are intentionally designed to influence their decisions. These deceptive design techniques are known as Dark Patterns.
Dark Patterns are unethical user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) practices that manipulate, mislead, pressure, or trick users into taking actions they never intended. Instead of helping users make informed decisions, these designs exploit human psychology and cognitive biases to increase conversions, collect more personal data, lock users into subscriptions, or encourage unnecessary spending.
A well-designed digital product should empower users with transparency, choice, and control. Dark Patterns do the exact opposite. They reduce transparency, limit genuine choice, and interfere with informed decision-making for commercial gain.
In this video, we explain what Dark Patterns are, why regulators around the world are taking action against them, and how consumers, businesses, product designers, and legal professionals can identify and avoid these deceptive practices.
What are Dark Patterns?
Dark Patterns are interface designs intentionally created to manipulate user behaviour.
Rather than improving the user experience, these interfaces are engineered to:
• Influence purchasing decisions
• Collect excessive personal information
• Obtain consent that users never intended to provide
• Lock users into recurring subscriptions
• Make cancellation unnecessarily difficult
• Increase revenue through deceptive practices
Most users assume that what they see on a screen is presented fairly. Unfortunately, many interfaces are carefully designed to steer users toward decisions that primarily benefit the platform rather than the user.
Common Examples of Dark Patterns
You have probably encountered Dark Patterns without realizing it.
Some of the most common examples include:
• Fake countdown timers claiming "Only 2 minutes left" when the timer simply resets.
• Artificial scarcity messages such as "Only 1 room left" or "Only 2 items remaining" without any genuine inventory limitation.
• Hidden charges that only appear during the final checkout stage.
• Automatically adding products, insurance, donations, or services to a shopping cart without clear consent (Basket Sneaking).
• Subscription traps that make signing up simple but make cancellation intentionally difficult.
• Free trials that silently convert into paid subscriptions without meaningful reminders.
• Interfaces that highlight the "Accept" button while hiding or minimizing the "Decline" option.
• Misleading advertisements designed to resemble news articles, download buttons, or independent recommendations.
• Auto-playing videos and notifications intended to capture attention and increase engagement.
• Forcing users to create accounts before completing a purchase that could otherwise be completed as a guest.
• Using confusing wording or trick questions that cause users to accidentally provide consent.
• Privacy settings deliberately hidden behind multiple screens, making it difficult to opt out of data sharing.
• Confirm Shaming, where declining an offer is accompanied by guilt-inducing messages such as "No thanks, I don't like saving money."
Large digital platforms have often been criticised for making privacy settings difficult to locate, making account deletion unnecessarily complex, or encouraging users to share more information than they intended.
These practices are not accidental. They are frequently the result of deliberate behavioural design strategies aimed at increasing user engagement, data collection, and revenue.
Why Dark Patterns Matter
Dark Patterns affect far more than online shopping.
They influence how users:
• Spend money
• Share personal data
• Consent to privacy policies
• Subscribe to digital services
• Purchase insurance
• Download applications
• Accept cookies
• Use social media
• Manage online accounts
When users are manipulated instead of informed, consumer trust declines. Over time, deceptive design damages customer relationships, brand reputation, and regulatory compliance.
Ethical businesses increasingly recognise that long-term trust creates more value than short-term conversions driven by manipulation.
Dark Patterns Under Indian Law
Among the prohibited Dark Patterns are:
• False Urgency
• Basket Sneaking
• Confirm Shaming
• Forced Action
• Subscription Trap
• Interface Interference
• Bait and Switch
• Drip Pricing
• Disguised Advertisements
• Nagging
• Trick Questions
• SaaS Billing Manipulation
• Rogue Malware
These practices are increasingly viewed as unfair trade practices because they undermine informed consumer choice and exploit behavioural biases.