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Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

Please file an FTC complaint. It’ll get to the right people.

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2021/10/...

https://www.ftc.gov/reports/bringing-dark-patterns-light

The problem is that they don't blatantly violate any of the policy bullets in that FTC press release... all the terms are spelled out in the interstitial. The issue is that the design goes out of its way to give it a very mandatory vibe. I don't log in very often, but I always have to catch myself ("...wait, what is this? Do I have to do this?"), and then remember to go hunting for the NoThanks button. It has a very opt-out feel.

Let the regulator evaluate if they want to take action. Not filing a complaint guarantees no action will be taken. Filing the complaint takes <5 min. My two cents.

Fair enough, it's filed.

I appreciate it. Thank you.

Do you work with the FTC?

I also agree though, 1) can't hurt, 2) the FTC is actively going after folks who are using dark patterns

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/09/...

Only as an ordinary, average citizen contributor. No official relationship with any federal agency, thoughts and opinions (as always) are my own.

Awesome, you were just quite knowledgeable so I was curious. Flagging that if you ever are passionate about government service, FTC is recruiting for a new office of Technology (I also don't work there but have many friends in the public interest tech community).

https://www.ftc.gov/technologists

I'd guess that if they get a lot of reports, they will generally pay closer attention to that entity.

The consumer commission in Australia openly notes that there are lots of individual cases with which they can't assist, but still request reports regardless. Helps them keep a finger on the pulse.

> Not filing a complaint guarantees no action will be taken.

What a lousy system of regulation, then.

I feel like you'd be more effective finding someone (or twenty someones) that work in their IT department on LinkedIn and explaining to them that working to enrich such an outfit is a scumbag move.

Hit them where it hurts. Government regulators are not it for these fully integrated parasites.

I wonder if the washed out text meets AAA guidelines? If not it could be argued it's effectively invisible for some users.

I feel like, if the government regulated the CRAs rather than the other way around, Equifax wouldn't exist or in any case have a license to collect credit data after what they did.

In addition, if they are sending email through a provider like Sendgrid, etc. you should send an abuse complaint directly to their provider.

If you do a whois lookup you can report that to their registrar as well.

Any system of regulation that depends on end users to police for violations and fill out government forms en masse to get results is a bad system.

"We only enforce if notified, and only if we are notified a lot by many different people of the same violations" is extreme negligence, in my view.

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