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