While it is no secret that exploitative practices are interlaced with capitalistic tendencies, the practices are becoming intolerable. Signing up to pay usually takes only two clicks that are prominently visible whereas cancelation options are hidden away in deep settings requiring multiple clicks. Pricing often feel arbitrary with no reference points. Every large company grows with the intention of exhibiting monopolistic behavior. This is not sustainable and should not be tolerated.
We don’t need a shitty youtuber to tell us what we’ve known for years?
Are you complaining because the video was posted here or because it was made in the first place? Maybe this community doesn’t need it, but there are a lot of people out there with not much awareness of what’s happening in this realm.
Arun knows his stuff.
It’s actually a really well made and comprehensive video that will undoubtedly be a wake up call to lots of people.
It’s for the majority of people that didn’t woke up yet
Mr.Happy Sunshine over here
Corporations were allowed to incorporate in the public’s best interest. If they are no longer operating as such they should be dissolved.
ADA lawsuits can fix that.
if you didn’t steal it, you dont own it. fuck these companies.
until more people take that attitude; problem only gets worse.
You should know: if you haven’t noticed dark patterns becoming more prominent, it’s time to get your eyes checked.
Free money has dried up, so competition is drying up a bit too. And without free money, the big guys are feeling some squeeze and now want to extract the rent they always planned to eventually extract.
I had one subscription where cancellation was not only buried in a bunker somewhere in the deepest pits of their website, but once you found the magical incantation to get through it the next step was to send them an email requesting a cancellation.
What’s the company?
Every single porn site.
I don’t normally care about naming & shaming - like the other person said, they’re all like this so the name shouldn’t matter - but this one was surprising to be honest. It was Bellesa Plus. The thing is, they’re like a progressive porn site, very much branded as one of those feminist porn sites that respects the autonomy of the performers and so on. They just don’t seem to care very much about the consent of their customers.
You can’t cancel T-Mobile on their site, they require you to call. Even then I got no email verification nor letter about the cancellation. Cool…
one time i had to call a company during regular 9-5 business hours to cancel a subscription after starting a free trial.
that experience was so horrible ive since sworn off free trials altogether. nowadays, if i need a free trial to use an app or website for a couple days, then i will simply not use that app or website.
This is actually good. There’s finally more room for good services offered by smaller companies that care about users.
How’s the weather in the reality you live in?
Bless your heart
I moved to a smaller company for certain services. Now that small company gets bought up by a big company and the services are discontinued. Back to big tech it is.
This would require the possibility of competition, which is generally forbidden widely due to lobbying, the consequential weakening of antitrust laws, and the follow-on massive consolidation on a scale that history has never seen before.
Maybe in theory but not in 2024. You’re only allowed to compete until you moon a giant, then you’re screwed.
this reminds me of what happened to the instagram cofounders when zuckerberg asked to buy their company:
Systrom [cofounder] said he feared turning down an acquisition offer from Facebook would send Zuckerberg into “destroy mode” — a concern that Cohler [early investor] affirmed.
(source)
this stuff came up in a court hearing, and then nothing happened about it
They have nothing to fear, no need to compete. They simply dominate and extract rent.
A very single-country opinion there. You know there are 194 other ones, yeah?
Antitrust laws and lobbying exist in many countries. You know there are more countries than just the U.S., right?
There’s this thing called multinational corporations that transcend the boundaries of a country. It varies, but this is a global problem. See issues like housing and the cost of food.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/wVYG1mu8Lg8?si=13cDtDHuKSG3uLSA
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Has anyone here noticed how it’s almost impossible to watch a TikTok on mobile if you don’t have an account or the app? My friend sends me links and I click it but the website opens playing it muted and it only plays the TikTok one time, no repeating. Then it prompts me to install the app. If I say I don’t want to the unmute button disappears and I’m unable to play the TikTok again with sound. The only way to do it is to refresh which just prompts me to download the app again after being played the TikTok one time with no sound. Aggravating as all hell.
I’ve been searching for a solution to this exact problem. My partner sends links occasionally and I always ignore because of how the web interface is blatantly hostile. Tried routing the links through MPV on android but no dice.
If anyone has a solution please share.
See my comment above
Not if you just ignore the link
I hate tik tok but I also have actual friends and I am not gonna be a dick to them about what link they sent me
Most of my friends know better than to send me TikTok links. But for the few who still do, I use this open source frontend called ProxiTok.
To get TikTok links to redirect automatically on couch, use the LibRedirect extension.
This all seems a little advanced for me. Is there a way to do this on phones?
Don’t worry, it’s not complicated at all. A little inconvenient maybe, but that’s always the trade-off when it comes to privacy and security.
Here are the two most convenient ways that I can think of on each OS.
iOS: Bookmark the frontend URL. When you get sent a link, pop open the page and paste the TikTok URL.
Android: Get Firefox and set it as your default browser. Install the LibRedirect add-on (browser extension). Whenever you get sent a URL, just tap it and it’ll automatically get redirected to the privacy-friendly frontend.
How long until that sort of thing goes the way of Bibliogram/Barinsta?
Only time will tell.
I know this one also went down recently for Instagram: proxigram.privacyfrontends.repl.co
But I’m not sure if it was an Instagram change that did it, or Replit took it down or what.
Freaking Ironic using a VPN as a sponsorship for this video… VPN landscape is literary riddled with Dark Patterns. Surfshark are also guilty of applying these.
Those sponsored ads just tell me to avoid those companies. I’m not from the US, so some stuff goes right over my head (food delivery, clothing), but anything tech related (VPNs, browsers, password managers, etc.) I’ll just gonna double down to never use or look into those companies.
Usually the best way to go about things!
Most of the VPN ads simply lie as well. “Get more Netflix” except Netflix blocks most popular VPNs extremely quickly. “Be anonymous online” means “we can see all your activity.” Etc.
Yeah, I noticed.
Windows 11 is rife with it
Why do I have to tell my computer several time per week that I do not wish to let the X box app make changes to my computer?? I’ve never had anything to do with an X box. Oh, now you’re going to make my computer unusably slow unless I update and… what’s that… ? I can’t fucking update unless I ALLOW X BOX APP TO MAKE CHANGES TO MY COMPUTER??? Fuck you windows 11.
deleted by creator
Sounds like it’s not your computer.
To be clear, I do believe it is your computer, but it sure sounds like it isn’t.
It’s X box’s computer now…
It’s happening everywhere, totally unchecked.
Can we name, shame and review bomb companies that do this?
It’d be easier to list the companies that don’t.
What companies don’t do this?
The gas companies. Don’t want to buy gas anymore? Don’t go to the gas station. No contract needed.
I mean, gas is the original surge pricing commodity, they have had dark patterns in their pricing long before other companies.
Oh.
Considering the main oil companies LITERALLY engage in price fixing, openly.
