Third lecture
Let’s start with a quick definition of dark pattern design :
A dark pattern is a user interface that has been designed to deceive or manipulate a user. These graphic choices can also be represented as elements put in place to solicit the user for a longer period and ensure that the latter stays on a service using cognitive biases. (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_pattern)
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‘Le Monde’ subscription
The story :
I want to start with a personal example I faced during my preparatory class. Cut off the world and trying to keep general culture, both for my self mental health and for the tests incoming, I subscribed to “Le Monde”, one of the leading newspapers in France. As a student, I had a right to discover all their content for 6 months for 1 € per month. Great ! I knew that after, it was going to be 10 euros, it was not hidden.
However, you see it coming, at the end of this time, they started to debit my bank account. All of this is pretty current you can tell me, but the worst was that I had written the date and I was ready to unsubscribe ! It was just too hard : it took me 2 months !
Indeed, I sent an email a week before the end to access the content until the end. They never answered. So I called them once I saw that 10 euros were gone ! They told me to email a certain address I could not find on their website. There, they took me weeks to answered I had to send a recommended letter with several personal information (honestly it is easier to buy a house I guess) ! Then, the process took weeks again, so a second month had begun.
How to improve things :
I was really interested in this newspaper, and I like written press. I could have become a long-term customer. Now, I won’t ever give them 1 cent again ! Moreover, with a procedure that enable you to subscribe and unsubscribe easily online I could join during the calmer months of my life and according to periods that interest me more or not. I do think that for fortunate and open people like their readers, such a kind of action is really counter-productive !
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One more city tax ?
Now, I want to present a non digital example. Indeed, we often think that those “techniques” are possible through new technologies. However, I do think the internet only enable some people to implement it more easily, but nothing is new.
To depict that, I want to take the example of hotels in some country (let’s take randomly … Italy !). Their you often find a price for a room, taxes are included like always in France. But, even if the reservation is made through the internet and you know you don’t have to use your money their. It often starts with city taxes, not included but logical, you have to know it. However, they often try to get more, like “you are 3, it has a supplement” even if the reservation is for 3. Or the cleaning is not included, … All this money is often get in cash, you don’t really know where it goes. Most of the time, you actually don’t have to pay, but it destroys the pleaser of a room.
How to improve things :
If things have been the same for so long, it is because the system is really hard to change. However, it took this example because I think it is through technology and most particularly communication with the internet that it is decreasing. Indeed, a simple message from the platform you book your room is enough to prevent you from paying more. That way, we see how the internet can also better things about a dark pattern.