YSK : Dark patterns among large companies are becoming more mainstream

While it is no secret that exploitative practices are interlaced with capitalistic tendencies, the practices are becoming intolerable. Signing up to pay usually takes only two clicks that are prominently visible whereas cancelation options are hidden away in deep settings requiring multiple clicks. Pricing often feel arbitrary with no reference points. Every large company grows with the intention of exhibiting monopolistic behavior. This is not sustainable and should not be tolerated.

Bosht,

Yes. This is pretty fucking apparent but again, cant do shit about it because corps have paid off our politicians and we can do fuck all about it because we have no way to properly revolt lest we all risk bankruptcy and lose everything.

Ultragigagigantic,
@Ultragigagigantic@lemmy.world avatar

Have you considered starting a electoral reform campaign in your state? We can change how we vote one state at a time so we don’t need federal reform. Look up a video on First Past the Post voting for more information on the spoiler effect and how it makes two political parties a mathematical inevitability.

HenriVolney, (edited )

The EU doesn’t let big corps bully their citizen with monopolies, maybe you could try to implement some of their policies at home

Carighan,
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

Everyone complains about the cookie popups, but let’s be honest, this is already a huge improvement.

ekky,

To expand a little:

While it indeed is annoying, it did mostly go as expected, as in, law makers must always be ready for companies responding to new and more restrictive laws with malicious compliance.

The vast majority of websites don’t actually follow the rules for cookie banners or implement them in as roundabout a way as possible, making them needlessly annoying as it should always be easier and at least as fast to decline than to accept.

While this all sounds like cookie banners ultimately are a failure because of the misimplementations that companies provided in response, it does function as an eye opener for the common man and stepping stone for the EU for further laws and fines in regard to citizens’ rights to privacy.

nom_nom_nom_9999,

So, this is the way to get make the most of your investment

postmateDumbass,

Corporations were allowed to incorporate in the public’s best interest. If they are no longer operating as such they should be dissolved.

SoonaPaana,

This should be the top comment. Corporations should not be allowed to play the game of ‘let’s see how long we can get away with this’.

melpomenesclevage,

if you didn’t steal it, you dont own it. fuck these companies.

until more people take that attitude; problem only gets worse.

duffman,

ADA lawsuits can fix that.

FunnyUsername,
@FunnyUsername@lemmy.world avatar

Has anyone here noticed how it’s almost impossible to watch a TikTok on mobile if you don’t have an account or the app? My friend sends me links and I click it but the website opens playing it muted and it only plays the TikTok one time, no repeating. Then it prompts me to install the app. If I say I don’t want to the unmute button disappears and I’m unable to play the TikTok again with sound. The only way to do it is to refresh which just prompts me to download the app again after being played the TikTok one time with no sound. Aggravating as all hell.

realitista,

Not if you just ignore the link

EdibleFriend,
@EdibleFriend@lemmy.world avatar

I hate tik tok but I also have actual friends and I am not gonna be a dick to them about what link they sent me

ERPAdvocate,

I’ve been searching for a solution to this exact problem. My partner sends links occasionally and I always ignore because of how the web interface is blatantly hostile. Tried routing the links through MPV on android but no dice.

If anyone has a solution please share.

hiramfromthechi,
@hiramfromthechi@lemmy.world avatar

See my comment above

hiramfromthechi, (edited )
@hiramfromthechi@lemmy.world avatar

Most of my friends know better than to send me TikTok links. But for the few who still do, I use this open source frontend called ProxiTok.

To get TikTok links to redirect automatically on click, use the LibRedirect extension.

LWD,

How long until that sort of thing goes the way of Bibliogram/Barinsta?

hiramfromthechi,
@hiramfromthechi@lemmy.world avatar

Only time will tell.

I know this one also went down recently for Instagram: proxigram.privacyfrontends.repl.co

But I’m not sure if it was an Instagram change that did it, or Replit took it down or what.

FunnyUsername,
@FunnyUsername@lemmy.world avatar

This all seems a little advanced for me. Is there a way to do this on phones?

hiramfromthechi,
@hiramfromthechi@lemmy.world avatar

Don’t worry, it’s not complicated at all. A little inconvenient maybe, but that’s always the trade-off when it comes to privacy and security.

Here are the two most convenient ways that I can think of on each OS.

iOS: Bookmark the frontend URL. When you get sent a link, pop open the page and paste the TikTok URL.

Android: Get Firefox and set it as your default browser. Install the LibRedirect add-on (browser extension). Whenever you get sent a URL, just tap it and it’ll automatically get redirected to the privacy-friendly frontend.

intensely_human,

You should know: if you haven’t noticed dark patterns becoming more prominent, it’s time to get your eyes checked.

Shou,

Noticed it years ago. Different colours for buttons. Harder to read. All that garbage.

Blackmist,

Skipping a month of Humble Choice is an exercise in gotchas. Sometimes the blue button, sometimes not, about 5 confirmation screens to skip through.

I don’t know why I’m still subbed in all honestly.

Wolfwood1,

Same here.

Luckily the payment method I had used has expired so every month they remind me to skip the month if I missed doing it. They call it something different but I know what they really mean ʘ‿ʘ

hark,
@hark@lemmy.world avatar

It took me a long time to cancel but I finally did because I’d been skipping for every month over the course of maybe two years. I had found out that the classic plan doesn’t even have an advantage anymore, so there was no point in me maintaining that.

Blackmist,

I should do the same, tbh.

Most of the higher profile games either get given away on Epic a few months later, or are already included in PSPlus.

Barely have time to play them anyway.

orb360,

Sounds like you’re just terrible at gotchas

Souyo,

Can we name, shame and review bomb companies that do this?

EncryptKeeper,

It’d be easier to list the companies that don’t.

Aquila,

What companies don’t do this?

elbarto777,

The gas companies. Don’t want to buy gas anymore? Don’t go to the gas station. No contract needed.

Routhinator,
@Routhinator@startrek.website avatar

I mean, gas is the original surge pricing commodity, they have had dark patterns in their pricing long before other companies.

Mirshe,

Considering the main oil companies LITERALLY engage in price fixing, openly.

elbarto777,

Oh.

Antiviral2422,

The guy use to take 120 mile UBERs, between cities. Of course it will be very expensive.

EncryptKeeper,

What does the fact that it was expensive original have to do with it? He used to pay 120 and now it’s over 350. Those are two entirely different levels of expensive.

Sunny,

Freaking Ironic using a VPN as a sponsorship for this video… VPN landscape is literary riddled with Dark Patterns. Surfshark are also guilty of applying these.

UckyBon,

Those sponsored ads just tell me to avoid those companies. I’m not from the US, so some stuff goes right over my head (food delivery, clothing), but anything tech related (VPNs, browsers, password managers, etc.) I’ll just gonna double down to never use or look into those companies.

Socsa,

Most of the VPN ads simply lie as well. “Get more Netflix” except Netflix blocks most popular VPNs extremely quickly. “Be anonymous online” means “we can see all your activity.” Etc.

Sunny,

Usually the best way to go about things!

pewgar_seemsimandroid,

i also posted this lol

CosmoNova,

Yeah, I noticed.

Carighan, (edited )
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

Exploitative patterns like those idiotic youtube thumbnails the creators are using to draw extra attention to emotions not actually present in the video?

Or making half hour videos for all of 14 sentences of actual content, to stretch the ad-income as much as they can.

Yeah, that. Wish I could give a video -1 view instead of +1 after clicking onto it. Fuck youtubers such as this one, they’re part of the problem and don’t get to have a say in what we should or should not try to care about.

Asafum,

The “best” you could do in this case is use ad blockers, don’t use an account and never interact. Even a negative interaction counts. It’s all “engagement,” even if negative.

Duamerthrax,

I installed a Channel Blocker and got into the practice of opening unknown videos in Private Windows. For some fucking reason, YT seems to think I want to hear about people complaining about being suppressed by the algorithm. I would leave nasty comments for those videos if not for the fact that, like you said, any interaction counts as “engagement”.

AnUnusualRelic,
@AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world avatar

If it isn’t a text file which I can read in 1/10th of the time it would take me to watch a stupid video (if not less), I’m just not bothering.

Socsa,

This is how the internet used to be and it was wonderful.

Misk,

Lynx Master Race, Rise!

Carighan,
@Carighan@lemmy.world avatar

Plus it’s always a video, but never actually uses the medium. It’s just shots of the host talking to the camera. Very very rarely showing clips or screenshots that could even better be embedded in an article.

Can you do a lot with a video, if done well and for the right subject? Of course, and for those it’d absolutely be the correct choice. But people like the guy linked in the OP are neither capable of nor interested in doing that, as it’s just a business to them. It increases income, so long youtube videos it is. That’s one big takeaway anyways: Content creators talk about this shit not because they care, but because it gives them money. It’s a business, not a passion.

AnUnusualRelic,
@AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world avatar

Making a proper video takes a lot of time. Just recording yourself reading a text while taking cool poses, not so much.

ChunkMcHorkle,
@ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world avatar

Install Blocktube or another extension that stops videos from starting when you open the link, and read the transcript. It used to be at the top, just under the video itself, but now they’ve moved it to the bottom of the video description so you have to go through all the affiliate links just to get to the fucking transcript button.

But once you’ve found it, transcriptions are your best friend: skim it to see if there’s any real reason to watch (usually not) and enjoy that portion of your life that you just saved for things that YOU want and not what Google and that content creator want. The transcript will also tell you what portion of the video you need to watch, if actually watching it suits your needs.

I also regularly speed up videos; 1.25 is great under most circumstances, 1.5 if they’re really trying to draaaag shit out. You can always slow it down again, but it’s great for getting through the fluff if you need to hear it all (like repair videos for something you’ve never done yourself).

Ultragigagigantic,
@Ultragigagigantic@lemmy.world avatar

Youtube face.

People feel the need to monetize everything in their lives just to survive (not thrive). Consider directing your anger towards those who have purchased our government from us. Rather then being mad at the digital equivalent of a dude on a highway offramp holding a cardboard sign and begging for living expenses.

Fungah,

Who the fuck would rather repeatedly pause and in pause a fucking video, skim past bullshit, skip ads, or hell even USE YouTube over a block of text somewhere that c9ntains the info you were looking for.

People watch this dog.shit. is it because its.the only.place you can find info anymore? Or do people actually LIKE this format?

melpomenesclevage, (edited )

seriously. “I want to learn about resistors!” doesn’t send me to a nice pretty static graphic I can reference, or a text explanation of the meaning, its some shit head (honestly probabpy a pretyy cool if somewhat anodyne engineering nerd) talking for 20 minutes with an seo title and like 2/10 of the pieces of information I needed in a totally unsearchable format.

and that last bit might be the important part; its not manually user searchable. this matters, and I think its what the companies want, why they love video. it gives them more control.

random8847,

100% agree. I’ve found mrwhostheboss channel to be the worst when it comes to clickbait.

Delusion6903,

Speaking of dark patterns, anyone use TurboTax lately?

Stoney_Logica1,

I was pushed upselling offers no fewer than ten times over the two evenings I spent in their service prepping my taxes last week. It was infuriating. I’m going to try the IRS’s pilot program next year assuming it’s still available for the 2024 tax season.

talentedkiwi,

I’ve used freetaxusa the last couple of years. If the IRS one isn’t available, then I’d recommend them.

ElusiveClarity,

Same. It’s simple and straightforward and I think it only asked me if I wanted to pay for their extra service 1 time. I’m not sure if it’s income based but it didn’t cost us anything to do a federal return.

Delusion6903,

But does it do state too?

servermonky,

Yes, but state costs like $20 or something instead of free

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