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California bans ‘dark patterns’ that trick users into giving away their personal data

If you’ve ever struggled through a maze of online customer service to cancel a subscription or delete an account, you’ve likely encountered “dark patterns” — user interfaces that are designed to trick and frustrate users. The concept was coined in 2010 but is slowly being addressed in US legislation, with California this week announcing that …

Shadow profiles are the biggest flaw in Facebook’s privacy defense

The most powerful example came from Rep. Ben Luján (D-NM), who confronted Zuckerberg on the company’s use of shadow profiles — a term for non-user data collection that Zuckerberg was apparently unfamiliar with. “It’s been admitted that you do collect data points on non-Facebook users,” Luján asked. “So my question is, can someone who does …