Nick is a Features author who's been writing for fellow tech geeks since 2011. While he's mostly focused on phones, he's also thrilled by cameras and audio gear of all shapes and sizes. On weekends, ...

Dark patterns are design elements that deliberately obscure, mislead, coerce and/or deceive website visitors into making unintended and possibly harmful choices. Dark patterns can be found in many ...

Some business practices on the internet may not be against the law, but they undermine or manipulate consumer choice. Legal advocates have coined a new name for this practice: dark patterns. Difficult ...

If you’ve ever found yourself struggling to cancel an online subscription, or to deactivate an account on a website, you may have fallen prey to ‘dark patterns’. The Advertising Standards Authority ...

Navigating the virtual marketplace has become an integral part of the consumer experience in the digital age. Lurking behind the convenience and accessibility of e-commerce websites, however, lies a ...

Depending on your income, there’s a good chance you can file your taxes online for free. Over the years, however, a handful of tax prep companies have misled millions of consumers by hiding this ...

You’ve seen them before. Pop-ups with tiny X’s that make a window hard to close. Buttons and toggles in permissions boxes that are so confusing it’s difficult to understand what you’re agreeing to.

We have all encountered them, in both our personal and professional lives. Think about the times you felt tricked or frustrated by a membership or subscription that had a seamless signup process but ...

Back in April, when much of the United States was still sheltering in place, Amazon made an extraordinary decision. As the company struggled to fulfill a surge in orders related to the pandemic, it ...

Even if you’ve never heard the term “dark pattern” before, you’ve likely come across one. Consumer Reports provides a list of examples in a tweet, and on the tip line’s site, but there are entire ...