Dark patterns

  • So I just found an odd option in my (admin) user profile. It is not labelled as anything to do with Yoast. In fact it appears at the bottom of the Stripe section (which is below the Yoast user settings), and looks like it is part of the Stripe settings. It says: “AI features” and there is a button to grant consent. In there is a consent “I approve the?Terms of Service?&?Privacy Policy?of the Yoast AI service. This includes consenting to the collection and use of data to improve user experience.”

    This is presented in a user profile as if it grants the user extra permissions, as an admin would generally want all options. But it appears to be global, not specific to a user and should be in the Yoast settings page. That’s obviously misleading and a dark pattern.

    And then I saw in the Yoast settings, they turned on AI features by default. So I turned them off. And guess what, that user consent is still there.

    Dark patterns, shady people.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Plugin Support Michael Ti?a

    (@mikes41720)

    Hi @tufty

    Thank you for your feedback regarding the AI feature in the Yoast SEO Premium plugin.

    Just to clarify, the AI feature is found only in the premium version of Yoast SEO. You need to approve the terms of service & privacy policy and give your consent before you can use the AI feature. This pop-up should appear in the Yoast SEO settings. Did you find this pop-up screen and modal on the user profile page? You can also revoke consent for the AI feature at any time under the User profile.

    There’s no intention for “dark patterns” or “shady people” as our intention in the AI feature is to help users generate better titles and meta descriptions, all within the scope of consent granted.

    If you have an active Yoast SEO Premium subscription, please feel free to send an email to us directly at [email protected] so we can help sort this out.

    Thread Starter tufty

    (@tufty)

    Hi @mikes41720 yes I have Yoast Premium. And the issue is that I found the invitation to consent in the user profile page as well as the Yoast settings page, in a deceptive way. You have to understand that while AI is undoubtedly a very powerful tool, it also has serious privacy concerns and I need a great deal of control and transparency when I use it. I don’t appreciate being pushed into something like that.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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