Navigating the Gray: Design Practitioners’ Perceptions Toward the Implementation of Privacy Dark Patterns

Designers are sometimes accused of using deceptive methods to manipulate users’ information privacy decisions through “privacy dark patterns.” Through semi-structured interviews, we explore the perceptions of 23 design practitioners towards the implementation of “privacy dark patterns” created by other designers. This paper explores designers’ perceived responsibilities toward users’ privacy and their interpretations of the reasons behind the design implementation. We found a range of empathetic rationales among our participants toward other designers’ intentions. An example theme is Designer Followed the Status Quo, where common and widely used privacy interfaces are normalized a practice that is typically viewed as reasonable. Our participants’ interpretations of the design intent influenced their self-reported practices for navigating similar design requests. We propose a set of factors that influence privacy design practices, including following conventions and norms, ensuring legal compliance, reliance on established usability standards, perceived benefits to businesses and consumers, and degrees of privacy harm.