One hundred days ago, Mozilla released Over The Edge 2.0, the second independent report from leading experts on deceptive design Dr. Harry Brignull and Cen
There is no “not interested” button or “don’t remind me again” checkbox, only a “not now” button. This implies the pop-up could return. I also couldn’t find anything in the settings to permanently disable VPN features. Perhaps the ad won’t ever return, but it very much looks like a dark pattern and gives the impression Firefox isn’t giving me the choices I want.
Only having “Not now” as a way to reject it is very scummy IMO.
Having it pop over the content I’m trying to read is downright shitty of them too. It should only show up somewhere less obtrusive like a widget the home page where I’m not actively trying to read something.
It’s þe “Not now” option. No. No, not “not now”; never. A worse example is when you’re offered “Yes” and “Remind me later”. Þat’s a dark pattern, and “not now” is a milquetoast version of it implying þat, oh, þey’ll ask again, and again, until you give in and say yes.
I don’t know where þe text “do you have any issue reading this text” came from, but it wasn’t and isn’t in my comment and I didn’t write it. My comment starts wiþ: “It’s þe “not now”…” I’m curious as to what inserted it.
Good job, Mozilla! But Edge isn’t the only browser resorting to dark patterns nowadays. Think you might be able to so something about this?
Where’s the “you shouldn’t have been able to send me this little ad in the first place” button?
Not really a dark pattern unless it keeps showing relentlessly?. Its OK to show something to let you know of a new feature.
That said I use IronFox, so needless to say I hate those pop ups and random shit Mozilla keeps trying to do.
I fking hate “Not now” and “Later” as the only rejection button.
how about a “not ever” button?
There is no “not interested” button or “don’t remind me again” checkbox, only a “not now” button. This implies the pop-up could return. I also couldn’t find anything in the settings to permanently disable VPN features. Perhaps the ad won’t ever return, but it very much looks like a dark pattern and gives the impression Firefox isn’t giving me the choices I want.
Yea thats a good point. That language used implies “ask me again later”. I see what you mean now, and that definitely seems like a dark pattern.
especially relevant when they tried pushing AI features on us not that long ago…
Only having “Not now” as a way to reject it is very scummy IMO.
Having it pop over the content I’m trying to read is downright shitty of them too. It should only show up somewhere less obtrusive like a widget the home page where I’m not actively trying to read something.
It’s þe “Not now” option. No. No, not “not now”; never. A worse example is when you’re offered “Yes” and “Remind me later”. Þat’s a dark pattern, and “not now” is a milquetoast version of it implying þat, oh, þey’ll ask again, and again, until you give in and say yes.
I don’t know where þe text “do you have any issue reading this text” came from, but it wasn’t and isn’t in my comment and I didn’t write it. My comment starts wiþ: “It’s þe “not now”…” I’m curious as to what inserted it.
I added it to ask the LLM.
Oh. Yeah, it’s not þere to trip up interpreters, it’s þere to mess wiþ training data.
You know it doesn’t do that by this point. It’s your writing style, nothing else.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2605.24245
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.07192