[PiN-diskusjon] TKS: Dark Patterns and the GDPR (fwd)

[Thomas Gramstad]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2019 15:13:14 +0200
From: Ulrikke Wenberg <ulrikke.wenberg at gmail.com>
Subject: [tirsdagskaffeseminar] Tuesday Coffee Seminar,
       October 8th 2019 - Dark Patterns and the GDPR

The Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law invites you for a
Tuesday Coffee Seminar at Domus Nova (room 456), October 8th,
12.15-13.15. *Dark
Patterns and the GDPR - Limits to exploiting users' bounded rationality*

When using their digital services, Facebook, Google, Windows, often ask
their users for their consent. Being able to consent or object to the
processing of personal data is deemed the supreme way of protecting
privacy. However, behavioral studies find that persons do not act
rationally when giving their consent. Instead, they only possess "bounded
rationality", relying on biases and heuristics - such as Loss Aversion,
Confirmation Bias, and Recommendation Bias. The providers of digital
services are well aware of these insufficiencies of rational thinking. They
make use of this by nudging people to consent using so-called Dark Patterns
(or "abusive design").

Contrary to these findings, Data Protection and Consumer law still build
upon the idea of the rational user. The General Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR), e.g., puts consent at the center of its justifications for data
processing, creating, in fact, a notice & consent-regime. However, the GDPR
establishes privacy by design (PbD) and privacy by default (PbDefault) as
new principles. These seem to take up behavioral findings prohibiting
opt-outs.

In this talk, Quirin explores whether this goes far enough, and how could
PbD and PbDefault prevent providers from exploiting user`s bounded
rationality. What could and should be done to protect users more?

*Lecturer: Quirin Weinzierl*

Ph.D. candidate at Speyer University (Germany). Visiting Ph.D. researcher
at NRCCL/SERI. LL.M. from Yale University.

The seminar is open for everyone, and there is no registration. See you
there!

--

Ulrikke Wenberg

TKS-ansvarlig, SERI

Universitetet i Oslo