On the flip side, this particular dark pattern was caused by regulation. As usual, shades of gray
Regulation is a possible cure.
Call me crazy, but if some place would be weary of going straight up for the “let’s ban things with lawyers ” approach, I would think is HN.
You'll be fine as long as you're not in the habit of doing things like this that are clearly outwardly hostile to everyone you come into contact with.
How many people not liking gaslighting personal-data-theft dark patterns will it take to make it into a law?
We're transitioning from purely physical beings to having a more virtual presence. Virtual crimes are much less visible and have much greater impact at scale than their physical counterparts, identity theft by Equifax breach or a hack, VS physical force or pickpocketing, for example.
The impact of violating privacy is neither increased nor decreased by the impact of theft and/or murder. If we compare theft and murder, theft «in general» is less impactful than murder, as I'm deprived of property and potentially physically injured with theft, with murder I am deprived of life itself.
That murder is generally more impactful doesn't make theft more acceptable/less bad; we should have laws for both.
I don't want to live in a world where the criminalization of everything that ever happened that you didn't like means that I'm always breaking the law.