Shady online practices that need to stop

Navigating todays internet is like stepping into a minefield, with many (nearly all) SASS companies employing questionable tactics to obtain your hard earned dollars.

While some companies operate with transparency and fairness, unfortunately that’s not true for all. A vast number of them prefer practices that can range from mildly inconvenient to unapologetically obnoxious.

This post will serve as a reminder of some of the most prevalent tactics used by some online businesses.

Free trials that insist you provide credit card details

This is one of the oldest practices that annoys me the most. The entire point of a free trial is for users to experience the service or software free of obligation, ultimately deciding if it will be suitable. With this in mind, there’s no legitimate reason to ask for the credit card details up-front.

I’ve occasionally queried some of these service providers asking why I need to provide a credit card to test their software, with the response always being something along the lines of “Our goal is to make it easier for our customers should they decide to continue using the service”. Yes, very convenient.

At the same time, they absolutely know there’s a good chance you’ll forget to cancel before the free trial ends, and then you’ll be automatically subscribed and the first payment taken. They also know that a number of users know that disputing the payment will be too much of a bother, and it’s just easier to cancel and swallow the lost cost.

My biggest problem with this, is that if I decided to not continue with the service, there is a period of time where my credit card details are stored on yet another server. In some cases, even if you cancel and close the account before the free trial ends, they still keep your credit card details on record indefinitely. While it might sound paranoid, I always operate under the assumption that it’s just a matter of time until every popular online service is eventually hacked and my data credit card info leaked.

Summary: Make no mistake, many businesses bank on you forgetting to cancel a subscription. And the way I see it, if a business has no qualms taking money from users who committed the crime of being forgetful, then I’ll never do business with them.

Dark patterns that make it difficult to close your account

Historically, Amazon is famous for having a particularly bad experience when it comes to closing your account. Just look at this insanity:

If that wasn’t enough, Amazon also made it possible to accidentally enrol yourself into an auto-renewing Prime subscription and making it confusing to cancel. Even I got caught up in this. If there’s any justice, Amazon may face the consequences of their deceptive actions, with an FTC lawsuit scheduled for June 2025.

Companies that make it this hard to leave are counting on you just giving up, so they can take another month (or year) of service fees from you. In the industry we call it ‘Difficult by design’. All things being fair and equal, every online service should making closing your account no more than a couple of clicks, which is apparently on the agenda of the Biden administration.

Summary: Companies that deliberately make it difficult for you to leave neither respect you or deserve your money. If possible, don’t deal with them.

Email subscriptions that make it hard to unsubscribe

Companies that operate here in Australia must abide by the Spam Act Law of 2003, which among other things states that any commercial marketing communications sent can only be to users who specifically opted in, it must be drop-dead simple to unsubscribe (a link in the email), and does not require the user to login or provide any personal information.

The maximum fine for violating these laws are substantial, with organisations liable to pay up to $220,000 per day. Ouch, but deserved. Case in point: In 2023 Pizza Hut sent over ten million marketing messages to customers with no way to unsubscribe, which resulted in a $2,502,500 fine.

As for the rest of the world, there seems to be either ambiguity about how commercial communications are sent, or some companies are cool taking the risk.

The worst offenders will do any or all of the following:

• Make the unsubscribe link difficult to see (no link style)
• Force you to login to your account to complete the unsubscribe process (a deliberate hurdle)
• Force you to say why you want to unsubscribe (rarely optional)
• Use confusing language to trick you into remaining subscribed (are you sure you don’t want to not unsubscribe?)
• Use interface elements designed to confuse the process (emphasis placed on elements that keep you subscribed)

Summary: I never understood why a company would want to continue spamming someone who has already made up their mind to unsubscribe. Any company that deliberately tries to make it hard for you to not hear from them doesn’t deserve your attention, regardless of what the laws in their respective countries allow.

Subscription services for things that used to be pay once

The shift from one-time software purchases to subscription-based models has become an annoying trend, much to the frustration of everybody. What was once a straightforward single transaction where you own the product forever has been erased by software companies deciding that you still haven’t given them enough money.

The result is subscription services with ongoing payments that will eventually add up costing far more than what you would have paid originally. The companies will often justify this by bragging about all the new features you get, but in reality most users don’t care about them.

Summary: There aren’t many options, unfortunately, but it depends on the software in question and how willing you are to compromise. For example, I have always been happy to use Google’s office suite (free since 2006) and Gmail instead of paying for a Microsoft Office subscription, and I’ve never felt it lacking. Likewise, there has been a recent revolt against Adobe for high prices, questionable terms of service and hidden exit fees (the FTC in the USA is suing Adobe over this), where many industry professionals have started seeking out pay-once alternatives. Where possible, seeking out alternatives might be the only option you may have.