Although many in Germany immediately associate the title with sugar, this Dark UI method was named after Mark Zuckerberg.

That was yet another attempt by Meta to harvest all the data they could by training their AI model on both public and private posts.

While some might argue that the platforms already own this data and can do whatever they want with it, there was still something in between.

The LAW!

The law states (simplified): If you want to reuse data for a new purpose, like training your AI model, you need explicit consent.

Fun fact, every top rich person today wants an AI model …. crazy times

Well, Meta has a plan! They make the process upside down. If you don’t act, then you give them consent.

And let’s spice it up a bit. Let’s make it insanely hard for users to opt out by misleading them in emails, hiding forms under rocks or in unexpected corners of the Facebook website.

Smart, but not smart enough for European lawmakers. They filed a complaint and stopped Meta immediately.

But it’s not only Meta

I witnessed Privacy Zuckering countless times in my career. We didn’t have a name for that in the past, but certainly it was present since harvesting email addresses exists.

Always packed in a nice presentation, where giving your data is presented as a benefit, almost a no-brainer. At the same time, any attempt to opt out is an impossible labyrinth with links that legally exist, but are hard to find or under categories you won’t expect.

Here are some examples I love 🥰

• Discount if you give us (and all our ‘partners’) your email address.
• An Alarm Clock App asks for my birthday before I can run it ??!!?
• Banner screams, “Cookies are there, so you have a GREAT EXPERIENCE” 🤩 (While I literally just want to read the news)
• Random Blog wants to know my location?!? Like, they want to send me a blog post via snail mail? 💌
• Emotional blackmail 1, our business depends on tracking you through all your iPhone apps, please allow tracking, pretty please ….. Meta 🥺
• Emotional blackmail 2, oK yoU dOn’T wAnT uS tO trAcK yoU, noW wE wiLL seRVe yOu irReleVaNt adS 😠