Admiral PatrickFTC study finds 'dark patterns' used by a majority of subscription apps and websites | TechCrunch
VahtosSo, a dark pattern is a design that tries to trick the user into something. But what is the word for “knowing what the user wants, blatantly ignoring it and imposing the companies will anyway”?
Example: I think YouTube shorts are a terrible format, and I find them generally irritating. So I click the X on the element in YouTube that has a bunch of side scrolling cards, where each card is one of these shorts. YouTube informs me it will hide them for 30 days and then they’ll be back.
Another example, Windows Update. I’ve set all the group policy settings so it should never restart and update without me triggering it. But, if I allow it to download the update, then damn my group policy settings, it is going to apply that update and restart whenever it wants.
tabularIt’s easier to just put up with a small change you dislike rather than search for an alternative and then learn it. Companies do this on purpose to avoid losing too many users while maximizing taking advantage of them. They can do this when they’re the ones in control of the software running on your computer/phone.
What is it called when people do this?
Proprietary software, because this doesn’t happen when the users can remove the anti-features. You don’t need to personally be a programmer but you do need to find like-minded people. A free software alternative likely already exists but may need your help (free as in freedom).