harrybr
Show HN: Deceptive.design – dark pattern types, laws and cases (rebuilt)
In July 2010 I posted a blog article here introducing the idea of "dark patterns" [1,2]. Sixteen years later the term appears in FTC complaints, the EU's DSA and DMA, and consumer law in several countries.I've just finished rebuilding the website https://deceptive.design/ from the ground up. HN has been an important source of discussion on the topic over the years [3] so I thought it would be...
Why Putting AI Data Centers in Space Doesn't Make Much Sense
Conference video showing this example from 2010: https://youtu.be/zaubGV2OG5U?si=8PkLWhxHFSGQWuWw&t=597
In the video, the WSJ reporter searches for the term "Brown leather bag" and ends up finding what appears to be an AI generated / stock image of a brown leather bag inside a PDF that has zero relevant textual content about brown leather bags.
Of all the things a user might be looking for with that search term, it's not going to be this!
Digital Markets Act, Article 13. Anti-circumvention
"The gatekeeper shall not degrade the conditions or quality of any of the core platform services provided to business users or end users who avail themselves of the rights or choices laid down in Articles 5, 6 and 7, or make the exercise of those rights or choices unduly difficult, including by offering choices to the end-user in a non-neutral manner, or by subverting end users’ or business users' autonomy, decision-making, or free choice via the structure, design, function or manner of operation of a user interface or a part thereof."
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32...
1) This is from 2022. At the time, Adobe's CPO Scott Belsky responded saying "we can do better". Perhaps Adobe have adjusted their UI since then, I haven't checked. [EDIT] - I've just learned that there is an ongoing FTC investigation: https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1735565342565343417
2) I explain this example in a bit more detail in a talk I gave at a European Parliament IMCO public hearing, about a year ago. The part about Adobe starts at roughly 3m30s. https://vimeo.com/710684291
3) If you find this topic interesting, I run the website deceptive.design which catalogs examples like this, along with legal cases and laws. I've also written a book on this topic: https://www.deceptive.design/book
Show HN: Learn About Deceptive (“Dark”) Patterns and Their Legal Implications
Ask HN: How do you think the EU's new DSA and DMA laws will impact the industry?
If you're not familiar this legislation, here's an article that will give you an overview:“Brussels is poised to become the big tech police after passing the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act in July. The two landmark pieces of legislation have ambitious goals and steep penalties meant to loosen major tech companies’ grip on the digital market and force platforms to better handle...
Although expert witness hourly rates may look high, it really depends on how many hours you bill in a given period. If you're an expert in something very niche, there might not be enough cases in a given year to give you a meaningful income.
Don't quit your tech job yet. Expert witness work is usually only lucrative if your expertise is in high demand, like personal injury or medical malpractice.
Aviation Psychologist David Beaty on the phenomenon of ‘Set’ (1991):
“‘Set’ is a survival characteristic we have inherited. The human brain evolved to help individuals live and survive circumstances very different from our own. It predisposes us to select our focus on that part of the picture paramount at the time – a vision often so totally focused that it ignores the rest of the environment.
Once something is identified […] it takes on a reality of its own and sticks in the mind like a burr which is difficult to dislodge. […] The mind becomes tunnelled on a particular course of action. Add to that the ingredient of fatigue and it is not difficult to see that a ‘set’ as hard as concrete can result. Furthermore, ‘set’ is infectious. There is a follow-my-leader syndrome. So it is easy to see why most aircraft accidents are caused by ‘silly’ mistakes in the approach and landing phase.
[…] ‘Set’ has been a factor in many aircraft accidents. [In a case in 1972 over Florida], the crew of a Tristar were not sure that their undercarriage was down. The accident sequence was begun by a burned out light bulb in the system which is designed to show that the undercarriage is down and locked. […] the crew examined every possible of finding the trouble. The flight engineer crawled down into the nose, while the captain and the first officer tried every combination of switches and circuit-breakers. […] the three members of crew did not notice that the autopilot had become disengaged and the aircraft was sinking […] eventually crashing into the Everglades.
Because they had become preoccupied with an unsafe landing-gear indication, they failed to monitor the critical altimeter readings. Ironically, the air traffic controller noticed on his radar that the aircraft was losing height, but instead of pointing this out simply asked diplomatically “How are things coming along there?”.
The crew, still obsessed with their landing-gear problem, assuming he referred to that, for they could thing of nothing else, replied seconds before the crash, “Everything is all right!”
– Paraphrased from The Naked Pilot by David Beaty (Ch.6)
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Naked_Pilot.html?id...
It would be interesting to know the names of these chrome extensions and whether the sign up experience clearly communicates the ways in which the users will be tracked.
2018 interview with the author here: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistl...
The post I was quoting ended with "Why do we still have these silly mandates?? How much longer do people want to do this?"
The issue at hand is whether a person is willing to get vaxxed, wear a mask, observe local mandates and do various other things for the benefit of others - particularly those who are clinically vulnerable. It really is offensive to refer to someone who is clinically vulnerable as "at the end of their natural lives anyway".
If, as a society, we can do a few unselfish things, this will reduce the burden on health systems so people who need care can get it. An over-burdened health system is one that can't service anyone, regardless of the source of their problem.
The comment was offensive because it defines a segment of society who the author feels does not deserve to live.
Ask HN: What is a good open-source marketing automation tool
I'm looking for an open source marketing automation tool, i.e. something that allows you to create segments of your users and send triggered transactional emails (like braze, salesforce marketing cloud, intercom, etc). Any recommendations, folks?
Monthly licence fee: £5.36/month Annual: £39.07/yr Lifetime: £152.43
When you make your first design hire, just make sure to get someone who understands ux and user research.
They’ll understand this stuff in a much deeper way than this article. Most importantly they’ll know how to analyse and action the data they collect.
The website is built using webflow, which is a very reasonable choice for someone who wants to run a website who is not also a developer. Embedding or linking to content on third party services like youtube, twitter or airtable is not an unusual thing to do.
The website has no revenue model, and has been provided free of charge since 2010. Though it's not perfect - it would after all be preferable to entirely javascript-free - it's had a tiny net positive effect on the web.
You suggested using NocoDB instead of airtable. NocoDB was launched 3 days ago.