Guidelines for regulation of ‘dark patterns’ soon: Official

The central government will soon notify new guidelines for prevention and regulation of “dark patterns” or deceptive practices used by online platforms to deceive consumers into doing something they don’t want, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said on Thursday.

Last month, the Department of Consumer Affairs released draft guidelines for prevention and regulation of dark patterns, seeking public comments and suggestions until October 5, 2023.

Addressing a media conference, Singh said the new guidelines would be notified “very soon”.

He said the objective of the new guideline is to provide protection to consumers from all types of unfair trade practices.

“We have identified the dark patterns, and we have added three after public consultations,” Singh said.

The government had listed 10 dark patterns in the draft guidelines, including false urgency, basket sneaking, confirm shaming, forced action, subscription trap, interface interference, bait and switch, drip pricing, disguised advertising and nagging.

Three dark patterns that have been added to the list, based on the public consultation, include Trick Question, Saas Billing and Rogue Malwares. Trick question refers to deliberate use of confusing or vague language in order to misguide or misdirect a user from taking desired action.

Saas billing refers to the process of generating and collecting payments from consumers on a recurring basis in a software as a service (SaaS) business model by exploiting positive acquisition loops in recurring subscriptions to get money from users as surreptitiously as possible.

Representatives of the music industry have recommended including 'Rogue Malwares' as a new dark pattern. Rogue Malwares use a ransomware to trick users into believing there is a virus on their computer and aims to convince them to pay for a fake malware removal tool that actually installs malware on their computer.

Singh said the central government is building a software which will detect websites which use these dark patterns and alert consumers. “The software will just be a mobile application which, like ‘truecaller’, will only alert you if a website indulges in such practices,” he said.

“The guidelines, if implemented, will go a long way in reducing this nuisance. But the regulations can also have a large impact on public and private businesses across D2C businesses, e-commerce, and financial services, including new-age fintechs and banks,” Zerodha co-founder Nithin Kamath posted on X (formerly Twitter).

“This is a welcome move but could potentially have a material impact on revenues for many businesses,” Kamath added.

The Department of Consumer Affairs in collaboration with IIT (BHU) on Thursday launched Dark Patterns Buster Hackathon 2023 to design & prototype innovative apps or software that can detect dark patterns on e-Commerce platforms.

Singh said the objective behind the new guidelines is to empower consumers. However, some industry leaders have expressed concerns that it might impact online business companies negatively.