OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
FTC Eyes 'Dark Patterns’ Online
That Can Harm Older Adults By Sara Wildberger
A
s concern about social media use, misinformation, online privacy, and similar issues continue to rise,
there’s an issue that affects nearly all who use the internet in some way: It’s termed “dark patterns.” And older adults can be particularly vulnerable. The Federal Trade Commission held a
workshop last year on dark patterns to de- termine how they’re being used and to what extent, with Dr. Kelly Quinn one of the experts speaking. Her work has included re- search on older adults’ use of technologies, including a study on the cognitive effects of social media use.
Q. What are dark patterns? A. I’d call them strategies or techniques— and some will call them tricks—that web de- velopers will use to influence choices people make on their websites or apps. We’re seeing them more frequently. They include techniques like putting in-
formation in a very small font in the bottom of the page, so it’s hard to see. And that information may be a way you can skip answering questions, giving out personal information, or stop a service. The result is that you don’t see what your options are. There are non-digital versions of this—if
you’ve ever tried to cancel your cable sub- scription, you know what I’m talking about. And there can be good ways of doing
this—we call these nudges, when they’re influencing people to make good choices. For instance, you may be asked to type in your email address twice, to ensure you haven’t made a mistake. But dark patterns push consumers toward
things they don’t always want to do—such as automatically signing up for email lists or to get promotional messages or giving away
lots of personal information because you don’t see that you can opt out of it.
Q. Why are older adults often more vulnerable to dark patterns? A. They might not be as active users of the internet, so they may not have as high a “privacy literacy”—the knowledge and skills to protect your privacy online. The ability to see contrast in some web pages gets more challenging as we get older. Or our ability to focus on the task at hand tends to reduce as we age. Even the ability for some people to be able to point and click in the places they intend can be less sharp.
Q. Is there a content aspect to this as well as dark patterns in design? A. There are all kinds of tricks that create urgency—information presented in bold letters, bright colors, ways to capture your attention. Creating a sense of urgency is something consumers should always be aware of. It’s important to check the in- formation that’s being requested and be suspicious.
Q. What are some things older people and families can look out for? A. One thing is to go through credit card billing statements to see if there are any charges that are recurring—they may have thought something was a one-time charge and been pushed toward a recurring charge without realizing it. I walk through the privacy settings with
older adults I work with and usually turn off the personalized advertising and cookies in the browser. I also recommend never storing your credit card information on a device. When you’re online, look for the boxes and uncheck them. If they ask for your
30 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022
Thought Leader Profile
Kelly Quinn, PhD Clinical associate professor,
communication University of Illinois, Chicago
phone number, you can give your landline number.
Q. What about some of the policy and regulatory action? A. I’m glad to see the FTC looking at these things. We had ways to protect ourselves against shady people in the past, but with the move online, we’re not dealing with individuals anymore—we need to hold web developers and providers to the same standards we would in-person sales. There are grassroots organizations that
are trying to push on the policy front, but we have a patchwork of laws in the United States—we don’t have a comprehensive privacy law. The FTC is charged with preventing consumer harm, and it’s really hard to quantify the harm that’s caused by services that are “free.” Obviously, Face- book isn’t “free.” We’re trading all of our personal data, and it’s created this wealth of information that they have—we don’t even know all they have. We are starting to see some interest in
Congress. We can look to Europe’s Gener- al Data Privacy Regulations—while it’s not perfect by any stretch, it’s a much further step than the United States has made to- ward protecting individual privacy.
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