Companies banned from using “dark patterns” that trick users in California

If you’ve encountered mazes when opting out of a subscription or deleting an account, these are “dark patterns” — user interfaces that are designed to trick and irritate users, so they give up on cancelling. California this week announced that it is banning the use of dark patterns.

The newly updated regulation strengthens enforcement of the 2018 California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), one of the US’s toughest consumer privacy laws. The move will “ensure that consumers will not be confused or misled when seeking to exercise their data privacy rights,” said the state’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra in a press statement.

The newly-approved regulation lays out a number of examples of dark patterns that have been banned:

• Using confusing language like double-negatives (eg “Don’t Sell My Personal Information”)
• Forcing users to “click-through or listen to reasons why they should not submit a request to opt-out before confirming their request.”
• Requiring users to “search or scroll through the text of a privacy policy or similar document or webpage to locate the mechanism for submitting a request to opt-out.”

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