Nothing says you care about our users like a deliberately misleading user interface. Today’s example of a giant Fu(k Y@u comes courtesy of Condé Nast via Ars Technica and their CCPA opt-out banner.
At first blush, the big, friendly banner at the bottom of the page with a button that says “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” looks like straight forward attempt to follow the law. Most of us will quickly click that Do Not Sell opt out link and take that small step towards protecting our privacy.
The magic happens when you click this button and get presented with an on-off toggle. The very clear selection box is set to “on” to the right of the option Do Not Sell My Personal Information. What could be more obvious?
Now, if you click the button that says “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” and you actually do not want Conde N’est to SELL your personal information then you are have to read the admittedly not so fine print in paragraph below and toggle the selector from “on” to “off”.
The truth is that any web professionals know that readers scan pages and very rarely read anything, especially the explanation of their rights under the law followed by instructions on using the UX. This UX design only makes sense if your intent is to trick readers into thinking they have opted out.
So, to Conde Nast and all of the other publishers who are trying to get away with this shit, UNSProject would like to simply say Fuck You!
