The Dark Patterns Keeping You From Opting Out of Data Sharing Are Darker Than Ever, Study Finds
A new report by the Electronic Privacy Information Center highlights manipulative design patterns in the opt-out processes of major companies that hinder users from protecting their personal data. Despite existing privacy laws, many companies employ confusing tactics that give the illusion of choice. The report emphasizes the real-world consequences of these practices, particularly for vulnerable populations.
- ▪The report analyzed the opt-out processes of 38 major companies, including social media platforms and data brokers.
- ▪Many companies use manipulative design patterns that confuse consumers and discourage them from opting out of data sharing.
- ▪The report calls for companies to evaluate their opt-out processes and for regulators to strengthen privacy laws.
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| Original publisher | Gizmodo |
| Canonical URL | https://gizmodo.com/the-dark-patterns-keeping-you-from-opting-out-of-data-sharing-are-darker-than-ever-study-finds-2000761379 |
| Publication time | Wed, 20 May 2026 16:30:23 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-20T16:35:02.753Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-20T16:35:02.753Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
| Excerpt source | publisher body |
| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | ngJGYU4rhCUV |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
| Substitutes article? | No — link-out required for full text |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
| Snippet | May a short excerpt of the publisher's text be shown? | Allowed |
| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
“Good luck,” the Electronic Privacy Information Center tells internet users trying to keep their personal data from being shared across the web. The nonprofit research center published a new report on Wednesday analyzing what it calls “manipulative design patterns” in the opt-out processes of 38 major companies, including data brokers, social media platforms, dating apps, and AI…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Gizmodo.
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