Dark-pattern self-audit

011. What this is

The Central Consumer Protection Authority’s Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023, notified on 30 November 2023, list 13 practices that mislead or pressure people into doing what they didn’t intend. They apply to every platform that systematically offers goods or services in India, and to advertisers and sellers.

From 1 January 2027, rule 4(15) of the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020 also asks every e-commerce entity to audit itself once a year and to display a certificate. I publish mine here, before that date.

022. What was checked, and when

Date

12 October 2026

Checked by

Aditya Vashistha, Proprietor

What was checked

The design and wording of all pages of quietlybuild.in, the checkout and the settings of Razorpay’s payment window, and the emails the site sends, as prepared for launch.

Against

Annexure 1 of the Guidelines: the 13 specified dark patterns and their illustrations.

Result

None of the 13 patterns found.

Next audit

Due January 2027

The same checks are run again on the live site before checkout opens, and whenever the checkout, the prices or the emails change.

033. The 13 patterns, one by one

Each entry gives the pattern as the Guidelines describe it, then what this site does.

1. False urgency. Falsely stating or implying urgency or scarcity to push an immediate purchase, including false popularity. Here: no countdowns, no claims that stock is running out, no counts of buyers or viewers, and no sales that end. The dates on the site are real ones, such as the day a kit’s facts were last checked.
2. Basket sneaking. Adding products, services or donations at checkout without consent, so that the total is more than the product chosen. Here: one product per order, no add-ons and no donations. The total at checkout is the price on the product page.
3. Confirm shaming. Using fear, shame, ridicule or guilt to nudge a purchase. Here: every choice is worded plainly. Closing the checkout or saying no to emails needs no apology, and no button mocks the person who declines.
4. Forced action. Making people buy something else, sign up for an unrelated service or share data they don’t need to share, to get what they came for. Here: no account is needed, and joining the email list is never a condition of buying. The checkout asks only for an email address, a name and a state, plus GST details if you want a business invoice. Razorpay’s window may ask for a mobile number for the payment; I don’t keep it.
5. Subscription trap. Making a paid subscription hard to cancel, hiding the way out, or asking for payment details for a free trial. Here: nothing is sold by subscription; every purchase is one payment. The free page asks only for an email address, and every list email has a one-click unsubscribe link.
6. Interface interference. Design that highlights some information and obscures other relevant information, to misdirect. Here: “No” and “Close” are as easy to see and use as “Yes”, and a close button never opens something else. The GST, the refund rule and the name on your bank statement sit beside the payment button, in readable type.
7. Bait and switch. Advertising one outcome and serving another, such as showing a product as available and then offering a dearer one. Here: every kit shown is on sale, and its Buy button opens the checkout for that kit at the price shown. The product you choose is the product you pay for, and nothing dearer is offered in its place.
8. Drip pricing. Price elements not shown up front, more charged than the checkout showed, “free” that needs a purchase to continue, or a paid service held back until something else is bought. Here: every price includes GST and is shown with its GST split. There are no delivery or payment fees. The free page and the free tools need no purchase, and nothing you have bought is held back for another payment.
9. Disguised advertisement. Advertising made to look like other content, such as reviews or news. Here: no third-party adverts, no paid placements and no affiliate links. No reviews or testimonials are shown. Where a guide shows a kit, it does so in a clearly marked product card or “From the kit” panel.
10. Nagging. Repeated requests or interruptions to push a transaction. Here: no pop-ups, no prompts to install an app, and no notification or cookie prompts. Email sign-up forms sit in the page, where you can ignore them.
11. Trick question. Confusing wording, such as double negatives, to steer a choice. Here: each checkbox says plainly, in the positive, what it does, for example “Email me when a rule this kit covers changes”. None is ticked for you.
12. SaaS billing. Collecting recurring payments as quietly as possible, such as free trials that turn into charges without notice, or silent renewals. Here: there are no recurring payments of any kind and no trials that become charges. Nothing is charged without a new purchase by you.
13. Rogue malware. Ransomware or scareware that tricks people into paying. Here: the site serves only its own pages and files, with no third-party adverts or pop-ups. The only outside scripts are Razorpay’s checkout, loaded when you open the checkout, and Cloudflare’s analytics, which uses no cookies.

044. Certificate

I, Aditya Vashistha, Proprietor, audited the design and wording of quietlybuild.in, its checkout and its emails, as prepared for launch, on 12 October 2026, against the Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Dark Patterns, 2023. I checked for each of the 13 dark patterns specified in Annexure 1 of those Guidelines and found none. The next audit is due in January 2027.

Aditya Vashistha, Proprietor, 12 October 2026

quietlybuild is run by GrowMint Media (proprietor Aditya Vashistha), Phagwara, Punjab 144401, India; the full postal address is given by email and on every invoice.

055. Tell me if I’ve missed something

If anything on the site, in the checkout or in my emails looks like one of these patterns to you, tell me through the Contact and complaints page. You get a ticket number, and I resolve it within one month. If I agree, I fix it and record the change on this page.