Indicating the rampant manipulative selling in the insurance sector, as many as six out of 10 consumers of online insurance sales and service platforms have experienced dark patterns like nagging, subscription trap and forced action, says a survey. The survey, conducted by LocalCircles, said that in the insurance sector, users of online insurance sales and service frequently face dark patterns that compromise their choice, value, coverage benefits and data. “The survey shows 61 per cent those who purchased an insurance policy online experienced a subscription trap where the platform made it difficult for them to cancel it,” it said. In addition, 86 per cent of respondents said the platforms frequently used a nagging approach when they take an insurance quote or attempt to cancel a policy, it said. Moreover, 57 per cent of respondents shared that platforms frequently used a forced action by seeking unnecessary personal details to provide a quote and sending unsolicited information or misusing the personal details. As an increasing number of consumers take to the internet to buy or renew insurance policies, complaints of mis-selling or manipulative selling also called as dark patterns in the online world have risen in the last 9 months. In view of the fact that a large percentage of online insurance buyers face a multitude of dark patterns, it is necessary that the government via the consumer rights regulator CCPA and the insurance regulator IRDAI should take further action to protect consumers, it said. The survey received over 36,000 responses from insurance consumers located in 309 districts of India. 66 per cent respondents were men while 34 per cent respondents were women, it said. The insurance agents or officials often don’t inform what all the policy doesn’t cover or the drawbacks of a particular policy vis-à-vis another or hard sell a policy in an attempt to meet their targets. While there is provision for the insured to return or cancel a policy when an insurance company misleads you and sells a product by hiding important information, it is equally true that many people trust the agent and often don’t read the full document during the consideration period when the policy can still be returned without any financial loss. The timing of these complaints coincides with the government via the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) notifying prohibition on 13 types of dark patterns in November 2023. “These include false urgency, basket sneaking, confirm shaming, forced action, subscription trap, interface interference, bait and switch, drip pricing, disguised advertisement, nagging, trick questions, SaaS (software as a service) billing and rogue malwares. Per the CCPA notification, dark patterns amount to misleading advertisement or unfair trade practice or violation of consumer rights,” the survey said. In the case of forced action dark pattern, consumers are made to believe that they cannot get a quote or make a comparison without following the directions of an online platform. This may lead consumers to disclose personal information that they wouldn’t have shared otherwise. Similarly, a false sense of urgency is created by falsely informing the consumers that a product is only available for a limited period of time, the survey said. This practice leverages on the fear of missing out and discourages users from reading all the information available. Websites, including insurance websites, sometimes use pre-selected or default options which are not necessarily in the interest of consumers. False hierarchies are used to promote a certain option or, on the contrary, to hide certain options.
