Did a shopping site sneak an item like a donation into your online shopping basket? Online platforms are using deceptive design patterns using UI/UX (user interface/user experience) interactions to mislead users, thereby violating consumer rights.
The ministry of consumer affairs has issued a discussion paper suggesting new guidelines that check the proliferation of what are called dark patterns - to trick customers into doing something they originally did not intend to, or coercing them into certain actions.
Kailash Nadh, CTO of India’s largest stock broker Zerodha, said dark patterns, or predatory practices that border on exploitation, have been a bane of consumer technology and services. “I am elated to see a human-centric legal framework emerge that recognises this menace. After net neutrality, this is perhaps the first technology policy that I fully and wholeheartedly agree with,” he said.