'Deceived by Design:' Google and Facebook Accused of Manipulating Users Into Giving Up Their Data

Facebook and Google introduced new privacy settings in order to comply with Europe’s sweeping new privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation, but campaigners still aren’t satisfied. Some official complaints on the day the new law went into force, and now others have raised further concerns about how the companies manipulate people into exposing their data. The issue is that some of the privacy settings clearly steer people towards choosing certain options. Consumer groups from a range of European countries, including Norway, the UK and France, sent letters to their national privacy regulators, asking them to probe these so-called “dark patterns” tactics. American consumer groups, led by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC,) are also asking the Federal Trade Commission to look into the practice.