Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved. 61 05 Signed, sealed, delivered Dark patterns, which are design tactics that persuade or heavily influence people to make certain choices, have been tricking internet users into giving up their data, money, and time. Third- party cookies follow people around the web for retargeting purposes, helping brands lure them back to their sites to make a purchase. Ad networks have stored incredible amounts of user data, and may have access to sensitive detail such as medical history, sexual orientation, and political affiliation. The problem is that, in some cases, this information is linked to people’s real names—and it’s unclear how extensively this is happening. In addition to privacy concerns, the friction in people’s internet experience has been increasing. Cookie preference pop-ups are just as much of a nuisance as pop-up ads, and for every new site or service provider, people are required to onboard data all over again. Today, they’re forced to remember, on average, over 100 usernames and passwords—each of which should be unique and/or follow a specific set of rules around upper and lower case, numbers and special characters. 89 The experience is wildly fragmented and anxiety- provoking as they must manage brands’ attempts to collect information about them and enter a set of personal details multiple times a day. + ambient, cinematic, rim light, pastel colors, well detailed, aspect ratio 2:3, algorithm version 4