Dark Patterns and Possible Digital Roach Motels
April 22, 2022
Online subscriptions are a convenient way to receive goods and services, from streaming media to household staples. They are easy to sign up for and, as long as there are adequate funds in one’s account, easy to continue enjoying month after month without lifting a finger. Ending a subscription, on the other hand, can be a calculated nightmare. CNet examines how and why “Canceling Online Subscriptions is Confusing, Difficult, and Absurd… by Design.”
Reporter Attila Tomaschek begins with the saga of cancelling his family’s meal-kit subscription, an ordeal that, he writes, involved a confusing maze of “surveys, guilt trips, oversized green buttons prompting me to stay on board and tiny gray cancellation confirmation links that I had to scroll seemingly endlessly to find.” Such tactics rely on customer retention through exasperation, and they are part of a devious set of techniques called dark patterns. The term refers to steering or tricking users into taking certain actions, like divulging personal data or agreeing to charges one never intended to incur. Or abandoning the quest to cancel a subscription, a sub pattern known as the roach motel. Tomaschek notes:
“And it’s not just the small-time players that are resorting to these tactics. Have you ever tried canceling your Amazon Prime account? Good luck figuring out how to do it — and actually getting through the process without wanting to tear all your hair out. Want to cancel your New York Times subscription? Make sure you have 8 minutes to spare as you wait for a live chat representative to do it for you. This type of dark pattern is sometimes referred to as a roach motel — a design that makes it easy to sign up for a service but outrageously difficult to cancel that service. The cancellation funnel is typically a multi-step process that includes intentionally confusing language and ambiguous navigation buttons. Companies may also sprinkle in cancellation buttons that say things like ‘I don’t care about losing premium features,’ or ‘I don’t like saving money,’ for good measure — preying on the fear of missing out to keep their customers. Then, once the customer has finally navigated the cancellation funnel, they’ll often have to call a phone number or send an email or contact a support agent via chat to finalize the process, adding yet another step to an already lengthy process.”
Not all online subscription providers stoop to this level. Some make the cancellation process easy and transparent, relying on customer satisfaction for customer retention. Imagine that! The hugely successful streaming service Netflix and popular online collaboration platform Basecamp are two examples. For those that do treat would-be former users like roaches, a scant few have faced legal consequences. Examples include the children’s learning platform ABCmouse and weight loss app Noom. Those cases are not the norm, though, as legislation has yet to catch up to the very concept of dark patterns. Until it does, Tomaschek suggests readers examine a company’s cancellation procedure before subscribing to any online service. If it is clear as mud, one would be wise not to set foot in that potential labyrinth.
Cynthia Murrell, April 22, 2022
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