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Comment by isoprophlex | Hacker News Reader

By now these VPN providers are like toothpaste, diapers or soft drinks: completely undifferentiated between competitors, and so only able to maintain their market share by spending loads on marketing. Of course the company with most egregious dark patterns and aggressive churn dampening wins.

Thankfully a tube of toothpaste doesn't allow implementing dark patterns like this... yet.

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I would strongly disagree for the following reasons: You can and should differentiate VPN providers. Ways to differentiate them: Have they shared logs in the past, where companies are headquartered, reputation.

Fair point, agreed.

I have noticed personally, however, that all people i know that have purchased a vpn subscription don't do this. They simply buy into the FUD. N=1 of course...

Maybe the market size has become so large that less savvy users propel the unscrupulous companies to the top?

I think it's exactly the same as when purchasing anything in life. There are better and worse products. Many people will not buy a good product in terms of quality/price or value/price.

> Maybe the market size has become so large that less savvy users propel the unscrupulous companies to the top?

I would say that is the case for many products. Personal example: our family car is nearly 10 years or so old and still going strong, its reliable and good overall. We spent time researching good vehicles on the market then and bought the care after research, it paid off.

>doesn't allow implementing dark patterns like this.

or does it? Call from the past "3D" tooth paste marketing, whitening agents, microplastics, multi-color squirts, same FUD "brush like a pro only with XXX". Those are just few (top of my head) of the levels marketing goes to attempt and sell toothpaste.

You are right of course... the "analogue dark patterns" are as old as advertising.

But there's more! since posting my comment, I've noticed Amazon dark-patterning a "monthly subscription on diapers" into a product description page.

Gotta chase that sweet sweet MRR

I agree with this very much, and it's becoming pervasive in other industry spaces too, like streaming services imo.

Can't we give the FTC more teeth, so they take action whenever a company turns against their customers? Most dark patterns are well known, so how hard can it be to define some laws or set up a legal framework around this? The free market isn't everything, but at least we can try to make it less shitty.

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