A new Federal Trade Commission investigation is looking into the “dark patterns” that subscription apps and websites use to extract more money and data from users.
“Dark patterns” is actually a term used in the FTC report to refer to manipulative design techniques that trick users into doing things they wouldn't normally do or paying for things they wouldn't normally pay for. They're not necessarily illegal, but they're ethically questionable, so it's good to be aware of them.
So the FTC said it looked at 642 websites and apps offering subscriptions earlier this year and found that about 76% of them used at least one dark pattern, and about 67% used multiple dark patterns.
These dark patterns include sneaking (hiding the app's ability to cancel a subscription or turn off auto-renewal), obstruction (making it difficult to perform certain actions, like cancellation), persistence (that's right), and other techniques.
Hit the play button to find out more, and let us know what you think in the comments.