‘Dark Patterns’ Casting Shadow On E-commerce

Dark patterns, a “kind of a scary new phrase,” are “design choices that that manipulate users on a website into making choices that they wouldn't otherwise make,” says advertising law attorney Amy Ralph Mudge.

• Source: Alamy

Consumers don’t have to venture into the dark web to be exposed to potentially frightening online business practices. “Dark patterns” by some e-commerce operations also are “scary,” says advertising law attorney Amy Ralph Mudge.

During the National Advertising Division’s annual conference conducted online, Mudge on 30 September discussed trends and problems in digital advertising

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