I almost clicked it too. There has to be a better way than having to be constantly vigilant against being duped into “consenting” to be spied upon. The internet doesn’t have to suck like this.
Typical dark pattern.
Honestly any website that’s so sketchy it needs to disclose its 14 trillion “partners” is automatically on the shit list from the start. These shouldn’t even be normal.
This is by design. They don’t want anyone to restrict access so they have their desired option; A) on the RH side (to conform to the western idiom that right is forward, based on the flow of text). B) less text, this is also why “OK” is shorter than “Cancel”
You will also notice that there are no icons. Several OS’s HIGs recommend a ✅ for “confirm” and a ❌ for “reject” because they are easier to interpret quickly. Nowadays human interface design is all about forcing the user to conform, rather than allowing them make a decision that isn’t preferable to the developer.
This is the whole underpinning of Neo-Liberalism, give the users multiple irrelevant choices, but don’t give them any meaningful choice.
100% intentional. This is just one example of the rather dramatically named dark patterns. As the corporate internet inevitably slides into the maximization funnel, dark patterns get ever more intrusive and worse for users. Corporations that don’t, or can’t, maximally leverage dark patterns generate less revenue, sicken, and are eventually eaten by a larger, stronger corporation.
Addendum: I presume someone who knows what an OS’s HIG’s are probably also knows what dark patterns are called. I wrote this more for the general audience than to try and explain it to you, and it occurs to me that it reads more like the latter and may come off as condescending or know-it-all-ish. If so I am sorry, sounding condescending is a trait in my writing I’m trying to be more conscious about.
fuck; I’m so used to dark patterns like these that whenever I read “cookie” my instincts flip and look for the less noticeable / most hidden buttons instead. It took me a few seconds to even realize this was a dark pattern.
Other common ones to be on the lookout:
- Filled out buttons that favor the company, while outlined buttons (or even just links) that favor the user;
- Toggles phrased as negatives, so “enabling” looks like “disabling” and vice-versa;
- Wording to disguise user intent: “Confirm choices” or “Save preferences” instead of “Reject cookies”, like above;
- Sneaking in optional checkboxes among mandatory ones at the end of a form;
- Small and low contrast elements to minimize important information that favors the user;
- Emotional manipulation: “this offer expires in X minutes”; “only Y left”.
I deeply resent how much of my brain is occupied with sidestepping sneaky bullshit like this. It’s gotten to the point where I generally don’t use a website if I can’t use it without going through their dark patterns permissions labyrinth. I only put up with going through this one because I was researching turtles and there’s a paper cited on Wikipedia I just cannot find.
Considering the “Allow all” is “OK” (on the right), and “Confirm” is “Cancel” (on the left) the form designer/programmer might get used to Apple environments with “OK” on the right. On Windows, “OK” is normally on the left. On Linux, it depends on the environment mostly.
These UX design choices are very much known, and have been discussed for decades:
- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ok-cancel-or-cancel-ok [2008]
- https://uxmovement.com/buttons/why-ok-buttons-in-dialog-boxes-work-best-on-the-right/ [2011]
- https://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?571 (Primary & Secondary Actions in Web Forms…) [2007]To me “OK” is one of the worst button descriptions. Why do I give my OK for? The content of the dialog? That I read it? That I wasn’t to perform an action?
A much better label would be “Confirm and close” because that is what the button does.
