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Dataskydd och dark patterns: En studie om hur VPN-tjänster hanterar personuppgifter
University of Borås, Faculty of Librarianship, Information, Education and IT.
2022 (Swedish)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesisAlternative title
Data protection and dark patterns : A study of how VPN services handle personal data (English)
Abstract [en]

Dark patterns is a term used to describe the way companies deceive users by design to give away as much personal data as possible, in order to benefit themselves. Previous studies have shown that the presence of dark patterns is very common on websites as well as in mobile applications. As the web and broadband companies collect a lot of data from web users, virtual private network (VPN) software has become commonly used to protect online users’ privacy. No previous studies have examined VPN services in this context. This report therefore examines VPN providers’ software and websites through content analysis, to determine if dark patterns are present in their user interfaces and information presented to the users and if so, in what way dark patterns are present. The result of this study shows that dark patterns were present on all VPN providers’ websites that were examined and one of the websites made it particularly difficult to delete user accounts and their related data. It is questionable whether all personal data gets removed after an account deletion request has been made by the user, since users have to give away more personal data in exchange to submit the deletion request, thus making personal data a tradeoff. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022.
Keywords [sv]
dark patterns, integritet, personuppgifter, VPN, cookies, policy
National Category
Information Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-28567OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hb-28567DiVA, id: diva2:1694804
Available from: 2022-09-12 Created: 2022-09-12 Last updated: 2025-09-24Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

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Cite
Citation style
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
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  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
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  • asciidoc
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