Published on <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/let-me-opt-in-dont-force-me-to-opt-out-b377a3a432c0?source=rss----eb297ea1161a---4">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Amanda Russell 
Social networks increasingly offer the illusion of choice re: notifications and features
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*785FNM5ZMdXoEf7WKo9N_w.png">The default selection for LinkedIn’s new “active status” messaging feature
LinkedIn recently unveiled “active status” for messaging: if you’re online and/or on your phone, people in your network will be able to see this. The company automatically opts you in to this feature instead of giving you to the option. Social networks have been limiting our freedom of choice for years now. Despite the torrent of articles and webinars about “design thinking”, opt-in/opt-out choices areincreasingly being used to serve the company and confuse the user. But LinkedIn is far from the only perpetrator of these anti-user patterns.
Earlier this month, instructions for turning on screen-reader friendly Twitter image descriptions were trending.
<blockquote>
I&#8217;m a blind twitter user. There are a lot of us out there. Increase your ability to reach us and help us interact with your pictures, it&#8217;s really simple and makes a huge difference to our twitter experiance allowing us to see your images our way.
 — <a href="https://twitter.com/_Red_Long/status/948577112860086272">@_Red_Long</a>
</blockquote>
Twitter automatically opts users into unnecessary marketing emails but forces users to manually opt in to a super useful accessibility feature. What is the possible logic for this design decision? Receiving emails in your personal inbox is way more invasive than writing an image description when you’re composing a tweet with a picture. Disabled users are still community members, but Twitter constantly outsources community education to its tech-savviest users. The opt-in logic here is completely backwards.
<blockquote>
No, I will not allow your website to send me notifications
 — <a href="https://twitter.com/heroinebook/status/950425877107458055">@heroinebook</a>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
hi <a href="http://twitter.com/WellsFargo" title="Twitter profile for @WellsFargo">@WellsFargo</a> you seem to have signed me up for a rewards program I don&#8217;t want &#8211; no opt out in the email. how do I get off the list?
 — <a href="https://twitter.com/cydharrell/status/928660588032434176">@cydharrell</a>
</blockquote>
Social networks may have the most egregious examples of opt-in abuse, but it’s a <a href="https://darkpatterns.org/">dark pattern</a> that has infected the entire industry. Why does every e-commerce site suddenly start sending you marketing emails after you buy something, whether you opted in or not? Instead of indicating specific interest, companies make the choice for you — and then have the nerve to ask you to fill out a form and wait anywhere from 30 minutes to 4–6 weeks. Sometimes I wonder, are they even really going to unsubscribe me? How many times will I have to do this?
<blockquote>
Hey <a href="http://twitter.com/Microsoft" title="Twitter profile for @Microsoft">@Microsoft</a>, I&#8217;ve tried to unsubscribe several times and always get a &#8220;new list, who dis?&#8221; error. You need to play by #CANSPAM rules too.
 — <a href="https://twitter.com/kateo/status/870014636996911104">@kateo</a>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
I&#8217;d comment on a hell of a lot more #Facebook posts if the &#8220;turn off notifications&#8221; feature actually worked.
 — <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrysantheTan/status/951893610693197824">@ChrysantheTan</a>
</blockquote>
Unroll.me claimed to help mitigate this problem, offering a tool to bulk unsubscribe from unwanted (and often, unrequested) emails. Unfortunately, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/technology/personal-data-firm-slice-unroll-me-backlash-uber.html?mtrref=www.google.com&amp;_r=0">Unroll.me</a> was also scanning your inbox and selling your anonymized information. As the NY Times notes, this information was in the company’s user agreement — but it’s common knowledge that users don’t, and don’t realistically have the time to, read the user agreements for all the services they are using. In this case, Unroll.me convinced users to opt in by marketing themselves one way and obliquely acting in another in order to take advantage of users.
Of course, that’s if you can even figure out how to unsubscribe or opt out.
<blockquote>
Hot damn <a href="http://twitter.com/foodandwine" title="Twitter profile for @foodandwine">@foodandwine</a> makes it hard to unsubscribe from marketing emails.
 — <a href="https://twitter.com/Hoffm/status/837430811846656000">@Hoffm</a>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
On facebook I always have a messenger notification telling me to turn on notifications. I can&#8217;t turn this notification off unless i turn notifications on.
 — <a href="https://twitter.com/TheNewParadise_/status/951882512992755714">@TheNewParadise_</a>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
You really don&#8217;t want anyone to find that tiny, tiny unsubscribe link, do you <a href="http://twitter.com/eventbrite" title="Twitter profile for @eventbrite">@eventbrite</a>?
 — <a href="https://twitter.com/clarissa/status/868224025088020482">@clarissa</a>
</blockquote>
Forcing users to opt out changes the user’s experience from a decision to a task. Instead of engaging active, interested users in these features and emails, companies hope that users are too lazy, too busy or not tech savvy enough to turn them off. Instead of “creating a relationship” as many companies like to crow, it’s more like someone standing on your porch and refusing to leave. You didn’t invite them, but it’s now your job, your energy, and your time to make them leave.
And yet, all of these companies have design and product teams that hold Meetups to talk about great design, designing amazing experiences, and testing with real users. Where is the disconnect? And how do we make the opt-out abuse stop?
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<a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/let-me-opt-in-dont-force-me-to-opt-out-b377a3a432c0">Let me opt in, don’t force me to opt out</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io">Prototypr</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Let me opt in, don’t force me to opt out

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