Deceptive Patterns
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Shutterfly: Confusing opt-out language

Author
Dark Patterns Tip Line
Date
2 Jun 2021

“A link to unsubscribe from reviewing a purchased Shutterfly product goes to https://preferences.powerreviews.com where your choices for two separate opt-out choices are “yes” and “no” with labels that contradict each other e.g. “Receive request emails to write reviews after you make purchases on this site.” and “unsubscribe.” This is clearly intentional obfuscation.”

Shutterfly was reported to the Deceptive Design Tip Line over confusing opt-out language in its review emails. According to the report, the unsubscribe link leads to a preferences page where two separate opt-out choices are presented as “yes” and “no”, with labels that contradict each other — for example “Receive request emails to write reviews after you make purchases on this site” alongside “unsubscribe”. The reporter regards this as intentional obfuscation.