Week 2 - Online Tracking And Microtargeting Flashcards
Which techniques are there for online tracking?
Cookies, supercookies (zombie cookies), browser fingerprinting and cross-device tracking
What are cookies?
Small text-based data used to keep state and identifiers. Critical for security. Enable linking of different visits across sites. By far the most popular tracking technique but can be deleted, expire and don’t work well with mobile.
What is browser fingerprinting?
Browser plugins, screen dimensions, timezone, fonts, software versions, etc. Overcomes the limitations of cookies because they’re not subject to deletion or expiration, hard to spoof and hard to notice
Dark patterns =
User interface design choices that benefit an online service by coercing, steering, or deceiving users into making decisions that - if fully informed and capable of selecting alternatives - they might not take.
How do dark patterns work? What are the descriptors?
Asymmetric, covert, deceptive, hides information and restrictive (ACDHIR)
Why use dark patterns?
Money (nudging you to buy more), data (nudging you to give up more data) and time (making apps addictive)
Why measure dark patterns?
- Document various forms of user-facing patterns
- Measurements can be the basis of building defences
- Companies respond to public pressure. Precedents include privacy & security measurement studies
What are the three key challenges to measuring dark patterns?
- Mimicking a real user browsing websites
- Collecting and storing data from websites
- Analyzing collected data
Which are the 7 categories of dark patterns?
Sneaking, misdirection, urgency, social proof, scarcity, obstruction and forced action (SMUSSOF)
What types of dark patterns are under the category sneaking?
Sneak into basket, hidden costs and hidden subscription
Which types of dark patterns are under the category misdirection?
Confirmshaming, visual interference, trick questions and pressured selling
Which types of dark patterns are under the category urgency?
Countdown timer and limited-time messages.
Which types of dark patterns are under the category social proof?
Activity messages and testimonials of uncertain origin
Which type of dark patterns are under the category scarcity?
Low-stock message and high-demand message
Which type of dark pattern is under the category obstruction?
Hard to cancel
Which type of dark pattern falls under the category forced action?
Forced enrollment
HCI =
Human-Computer Interaction
Bait-and-switch =
A user interface where the user sets out to do one thing, but a different, undesirable thing happens instead
Confirmshaming =
The act of guilting the user into opting in to something
Obfuscation =
Involves hiding desired information and interface elements
Pay to skip =
Where a developer charges users to solve in-game challenges and creates an uneven playing field for paying and non-paying users
Grinding =
Requires users to perform repetitive and tedious tasks in a game, which can keep users invested in playing
Temporary dark patterns (in apps) =
Request too much time, provide too little entertainment time, or result in the user feeling like they’ve wasted their time
Monetary dark patterns =
Cause users to regret spending money, lose track of how much money they will spend, or not know how much money will be required in order to progress
Social capital dark patterns =
Cause users to stand the risk of losing their social standing, or feeling like they’re interacting with software out of social obligation to fulfill a motivation
The attention grabber =
Where a user happens to pass by the field of view of a strategically located system, and the system takes deliberate action to attract and keep that person’s attention
The Milk Factor =
Where a system forces the user to move through or go to a specific location in order to get a service
Bad Defaults =
Where the default options are sometimes chosen badly in the sense that they ease or encourage the sharing of personal information
Hidden Legalese Stipulations =
When services hide stipulations in the policies which target the privacy of the user
Ease (dark pattern) =
Making the process toward privacy-respecting alternatives a long and arduous process
Framing =
When a user interface focuses on the positive aspects of one choice, while glossing over any potentially negative aspects, inclining many users to comply with the service provider’s wishes
Impenetrable Wall =
A user interface that blocks access to a service with a cookie wall or account creation when that is not necessary to use the service
Last minute consent =
Involves seeking consent for the collection of data at a specific moment where we know that the individual is in a weak position because they are in a hurry or impatient to finish
Nagging =
When the user’s desired task is interrupted one or more times by other tasks not directly related to the one the user is focusing on
Forced Action =
When users are required to perform a specific action to access (or continue to access) specific functionality
Misrepresenting =
When designers provide ambiguous and incorrect information in a direct way to trick users
Controlling =
When designers interrupt or restrict the user’s task flow, explicitly directing the task flow
Out of the 1000 most popular websites in the EU, how many of the banners contained at least one dark pattern?
50%
What is an asymmetric dark pattern? What type of interface are they common in?
They impose unequal burdens on the choices available to the user. The choices that benefit the service are featured prominently while the options that benefit the user are typically tucked away behind several clicks or are obscured from view by varying the style and position of the choice. Particularly common in consent interfaces.
Privacy Zuckering =
Burdens choices with user interface friction, hiding privacy-respecting settings behind obscure menus.
What are covert dark patterns?
Covert dark patterns push a user toward selecting certain decisions or outcomes, but hide the influence mechanism from the user.
What are deceptive dark patterns? On what type of websites are they particularly common?
Deceptive dark patterns induce false beliefs in users through affirmative misstatements, misleading statements, or omissions. They are particularly common on shopping websites.
What are information hiding dark patterns? What are two dark pattern examples of this?
They obscure or delay the presentation of necessary information to users. E.g. hidden subscription and hidden costs
What are restrictive dark patterns? Which are the two that fall under this category?
They reduce or eliminate the choices presented to users. E.g. forced action and hard to cancel
What are disparate treatment dark patterns?
Dark patterns that disadvantage and treat one group of users differently from another. E.g.: pay to skip interface
Sludges =
Nudges that induce excessive or unjustified friction and cost time or money; make life difficult to navigate; may be frustrating, stigmatizing or humiliating; and that might end up depriving people of access to important goods, opportunities and services.
How is manipulation distinct from techniques like coercion and persuasion?
Coercing someone is forcing or threatening them to take an action; while persuading someone involves a forthright appeal to their conscious decision-making capacities; manipulation can cause individuals to falsely believe they are making their own choices and are in control of their own destiny
Market manipulation =
The process of marketers and sellers exploiting individual non-rational behaviour and cognitive biases for profit.
What makes the sharing economy marketplaces different from the traditional commerce marketplaces? And what are the consequences of this?
The sharing economy marketplaces can manipulate both the sellers (e.g. Airbnb hosts) and the buyers (e.g. travelers). This can increase economic harm and reduce market efficiency.
Which three kinds of individual welfare can be diminished through dark patterns?
- Financial loss
- Invasion of privacy
- Cognitive burden (to expend unnecessary time, energy, and attention)
Which 4 kinds of collective welfare associated with society and markets can be diminished through dark patterns?
- Competition
- Price transparency
- Trust in the market
- Unanticipated societal consequences
What is the DETOUR Act?
US legislation that proposes a standard for dark patterns and makes it unlawful for a large online operator to design, modify, or manipulate a user interface with the purpose or substantial effect of obscuring, subverting, or impairing user autonomy, decision-making, or choice to obtain consent on user data
Which are the four normative lenses under which we can measure dark patterns?
- Individual welfare;
- Collective welfare;
- Regulatory objectives;
- Individual autonomy.
Paternalism =
A term referring to the regulation or curation of the user’s options
Anti-patterns =
Interface designs with unintentional side-effects on user behaviour
Captive audience =
Inserting unrelated activities such as an advertisement during user’s daily activities
What is Kahneman’s dual process theory?
Humans have two modes of thinking;
1. Unconscious, automatic, possibly less rational
2. Conscious, rational
Which of Kahneman’s thinking systems do dark patterns exploit?
System 1
Anchoring effect =
The tendency of individuals to overly rely on an initial piece of information - the ‘anchor’ - in future decisions
Bandwagon effect =
The tendency of individuals to value something more because others seem to value it
Default effect =
The tendency of individuals to stick with options that are assigned to them by default due to inertia
Scarcity bias =
The tendency of individuals to place a higher value on things that are scarce
Sunk cost fallacy =
The tendency of individuals to continue an action if they have invested resources into it, even if that action might make them worse off
Which 4 main categories can adtech companies be separated into?
- Publishers
- Marketers
- Third-party vendors
- Major platforms
SDK =
Software development kits. A library of third party tools and code that publishers (app developers) can use to add functionality from other developers and service providers.
Audience segments =
When people are divided into target groups based on common characteristics
Supply side platforms (SSPs) =
Aggregate information available ad space for specific users from several publishers, in order to sell it in the most profitable way. Can be compared to an auctioneer.
Demand side platforms (DSPs) =
In contrast to supply side platforms, allows marketers to buy ad placements for specific users with certain characteristics or behaviours.
Cached ads =
When several videos or banner ads are downloaded for the user so that they can be displayed as a user scrolls through a feed or opens pages across an app
Emotional targeting =
Analyses a person’s emotional state based on parameters such as behaviour, sentiment analysis, facial recognition, and more, in order to increase the chances of influencing behaviour
Why are price discrimination practices increasingly difficult to identify?
Because it relies on knowing what you’re not seeing (since everyone’s experience is tailored and therefore different)
Discrimination by association =
Being excluded or otherwise discriminated against based on assumed interests
