Source: United States Senator for Nebraska Deb Fischer
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, today participated in a hearing on the harms of persuasive technologies, focusing on manipulative web-design known as “dark patterns.” During the hearing, Sen. Fischer discussed her bipartisan legislation to counter dark patterns online, and highlighted the need for such legislation given the current lack of guidance on ethics for designing technology that influences human behavior.
Earlier this week, Senator Fischer, along with Senators Mark Warner (D-Va.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and John Thune (R-S.D.), reintroduced the Deceptive Experiences To Online Users Reduction (DETOUR) Act. The bill would rein in the use of these dishonest user interfaces to protect children online and help the American people better protect their personal data.
Click the image above to watch video of Sen. Fischer’s questioning.
An edited transcript of a key exchange is copied below.
Excerpt from Senator Fischer’s exchange with Dr. Dean Eckles, Associate Professor of Marketing at MIT Sloan:
Sen. Fischer: […] Yesterday, I was proud to re-introduce the DETOUR Act with my colleagues, Senators Warner, Thune, and Klobuchar. The Act would prohibit large online platforms from purposely using deceptive user interfaces – also known as dark patterns. Many of us can recognize the dark patterns we’ve personally experienced – where we’re trapped into clicking, clicking, clicking, clicking. Trapped into buying, or signing up for something you don’t really want because the user interface intentionally confuses the options. Our legislation would take an important step, I believe, to restore the hidden options and improve user autonomy. Dr. Eckles, I appreciated your technical perspective about how persuasive technologies are developed, as we seek to craft related policies. Do you think that we have enough debate and guidance on the ethics in designing technology that influences our behavior within the tech industry? Or in academia?
Dr. Eckles: Thank you, Senator. I would like to see more discussion of these ethical issues in the tech sector and in the public as well. And especially not just from ex-tech insiders who now are repenting, but really drawing on kind of the rich expertise we have from ethicists and policymakers. In the way, that bioethicists have provided some guidance in the context of thinking about clinical trials, etc. I do think we want more guidance there. One of the things that I think of with the DETOUR Act, at least the last version I was familiar with, was that from my perspective it is very important to allow and encourage these platforms to continue to do A/B tests, continue to do randomized trials. That’s much of the evidence that I’ve drawn on. Whether published work by those platforms or leaked, is A/B tests by those platforms. So, while I hope that we can shut down some of these dark patterns that have to do with subscriptions services etc. etc…
Sen. Fischer: Do you think that designers and developers right now are approaching or taking into consideration the ethical consequences here?
Dr. Eckles: Thank you, Senator. I think that at firms that are established and have found themselves with a bit of a breathing room and a large staff with technical expertise, they are. I mean in some ways that’s part of what we’ve seen in the Facebook Files leaks. Is a huge amount of disagreement and debate about some of these issues. But a lot of times that happens only after some engineer quickly built something, it got big and now there’s a whole bunch of data scientists and researchers to clean up the mess.
Sen. Fischer: So how do you get the ethical considerations at the front end of development? How do you incentivize or encourage, I’d rather go that route, to have designers really work, not just with government but with business and academia to be able to get that done? How do you do it?
Dr. Eckles: Thanks, Senator. I think one way is to make the public and all these designers really aware of the long-term negative consequences of some of these choices. Right? Facebook’s reputation is still deeply hurting from some of these moves fast and break decisions they made years and years ago. So, that’s a consequence that they are living with that brand. Thinking about that as an entrepreneur is really important. From my perspective, I also think about that in the context of education. We’re burgeoning enrollment in computer science programs. Ethics, and these considerations, and social sciences have to be a part of the curriculum in some way. I know in some of my own teachings in analytics I try and bring that in. It’s also useful to draw on additional expertise. We’re trying to hire a philosopher of technology ethics at the moment at MIT, in order to help this be a part of the curriculum.
Sen. Fischer: I think that it’s important that we bridge the technical consideration with the policy we seek to implement. And I appreciated your points about the value of A/B testing, which remains important if we’re going to have improved user experiences and distinct from the dark patterns that we are trying to address.
More background on the DETOUR Act:
The DETOUR Act aims to curb manipulative behavior by prohibiting the largest online platforms (those with over 100 million monthly active users) from relying on user interfaces that intentionally impair user autonomy, decision-making, or choice. The legislation:
- Prohibits large online operators from designing, modifying, or manipulating user interface with the purpose or substantial effect of obscuring, subverting, or impairing user autonomy, decision-making, or choice to obtain consent or user data
- Prohibits subdividing or segmenting consumers for the purposes of behavioral experiments without a consumer’s informed consent, which cannot be buried in a general contract or service agreement. This includes routine disclosures for large online operators, not less than once every 90 days, on any behavioral or psychological experiments to users and the public. Additionally, the bill would require large online operators to create an internal Independent Review Board to provide oversight on these practices to safeguard consumer welfare.
- Prohibits user design intended to create compulsive usage among children under the age of 13 years old (as currently defined by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act).
- Directs the FTC to create rules within one year of enactment to carry out the requirements related to informed consent, Independent Review Boards, and Professional Standards Bodies.
Click here to read the bill.