publications

2025

1. IPR

   FORTHCOMING: Leveraging Interdisciplinary Methods for Evidence Collection in Enforcement: Dark Patterns as a Case Study

   Johanna T. Gunawan, Colin M. Gray, Cristiana Santos, and 1 more author

   In Internet Policy Review Special Issue: The Craft of Interdisciplinary Research and Methods in Public Interest Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Digital Rights Governance, 2025

   Bib

   @inproceedings{gunawan-2025-ipr,
     author = {Gunawan, Johanna T. and Gray, Colin M. and Santos, Cristiana and Bielova, Nataliia},
     title = {FORTHCOMING: Leveraging Interdisciplinary Methods for Evidence Collection in Enforcement: Dark Patterns as a Case Study},
     year = {2025},
     publisher = {Internet Policy Review},
     booktitle = {Internet Policy Review Special Issue: The Craft of Interdisciplinary Research and Methods in Public Interest Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Digital Rights Governance},
     series = {IPR'25 Special Issue},
   }

2. DIS

   FORTHCOMING: Work-in-Progress: Towards Key Contributing Factors in Identifying Dark Pattern Autonomy Violations under the EU Digital Services Act

   Sanju Ahuja, Johanna Gunawan, Nataliia Bielova, and 1 more author

   In Proceedings of the 2025 Designing Interactive Systems Conference, , Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, , 2025

   Bib

   @inproceedings{ahuja-2025-dis,
     author = {Ahuja, Sanju and Gunawan, Johanna and Bielova, Nataliia and Santos, Cristiana},
     title = {FORTHCOMING: Work-in-Progress: Towards Key Contributing Factors in Identifying Dark Pattern Autonomy Violations under the EU Digital Services Act},
     year = {2025},
     publisher = {Association of Computing Machinery},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2025 Designing Interactive Systems Conference},
     location = {<conf-loc>, <city>Funchal, Madeira</city>, <country>Portugal</country>, </conf-loc>}
   }

3. CHI

   Promises, Promises: Understanding Claims Made in Social Robot Consumer Experiences

   In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, , Yokohama, Japan, , 2025

   Bib HTML PDF

   @inproceedings{gunawan-2025-chi,
     title = {Promises, Promises: Understanding Claims Made in Social Robot Consumer Experiences},
     year = {2025},
     publisher = {Association of Computing Machinery},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
     location = {<conf-loc>, <city>Yokohama</city>, <country>Japan</country>, </conf-loc>},
     series = {CHI '23},
     url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713471},
   }

4. PETS

   Gig Work at What Cost?: Exploring Privacy Risks of Gig Work Platform Participation in the U.S.

   Amogh Pradeep, Johanna Gunawan, Alvaro Feal, and 2 more authors

   In Proceedings of 25th Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium, 2025

   Bib HTML PDF

   @inproceedings{pradeep-2025-pets,
     title = {Gig Work at What Cost?: Exploring Privacy Risks of Gig Work Platform Participation in the U.S.},
     author = {Pradeep, Amogh and Gunawan, Johanna and Feal, Alvaro and Choffnes, David and Hartzog, Woodrow},
     year = {2025},
     publisher = {Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of 25th Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium},
     series = {PETS'25},
   }

2024

1. Ind. L. J.

   FORTHCOMING: Dark Patterns as Design Loyalty

   Johanna Gunawan, Woodrow Hartzog, Neil Richards, and 2 more authors

   In Indiana University Law Journal, 2024

   Bib

   @inproceedings{gunawan-2024-ilj,
     title = {FORTHCOMING: Dark Patterns as Design Loyalty},
     author = {Gunawan, Johanna and Hartzog, Woodrow and Richards, Neil and Choffnes, David and Wilson, Christo},
     year = {2024},
     publisher = {Indiana University School of Law},
     booktitle = {Indiana University Law Journal},
     series = {100 Ind. L. J.},
   }

2. ConPro

   PROPOSAL: Design Loyalty Approaches for Dark Patterns

   Johanna Gunawan, David Choffnes, Woodrow Hartzog, and 1 more author

   In Program of the 8th Workshop on Technology and Consumer Protection, 2024

   Bib HTML

   @inproceedings{gunawan-2024-conpro,
     author = {Gunawan, Johanna and Choffnes, David and Hartzog, Woodrow and Wilson, Christo},
     year = {2024},
     title = {PROPOSAL: Design Loyalty Approaches for Dark Patterns},
     booktitle = {Program of the 8th Workshop on Technology and Consumer Protection},
     url = {https://conpro24.ieee-security.org/papers/gunawan-conpro24.pdf},
   }

3. ConPro

   PROPOSAL: Privacy Perceptions and Behaviors of LGBTQ+ Community in Turkiye

   Devris Isler, and Johanna Gunawan

   In Program of the 8th Workshop on Technology and Consumer Protection, 2024

   Bib HTML

   @inproceedings{isler-2024-conpro,
     author = {Isler, Devris and Gunawan, Johanna},
     year = {2024},
     title = {PROPOSAL: Privacy Perceptions and Behaviors of LGBTQ+ Community in Turkiye},
     booktitle = {Program of the 8th Workshop on Technology and Consumer Protection},
     url = {https://conpro24.ieee-security.org/papers/isler-conpro24.pdf},
   }

4. ConPro

   PROPOSAL: SoK; Towards Collaborative Evidence Collection in Dark Patterns Enforcement

   Cristiana Santos, Johanna Gunawan, Colin Gray, and 1 more author

   In Program of the 8th Workshop on Technology and Consumer Protection, 2024

   Bib HTML

   @inproceedings{santos-2024-conpro,
     author = {Santos, Cristiana and Gunawan, Johanna and Gray, Colin and Bielova, Nataliia},
     year = {2024},
     title = {PROPOSAL: SoK; Towards Collaborative Evidence Collection in Dark Patterns Enforcement},
     booktitle = {Program of the 8th Workshop on Technology and Consumer Protection},
     url = {https://conpro24.ieee-security.org/papers/santos-conpro24.pdf},
   }

5. Wash. U. L. Rev.

   Privacy Nicks: How the Law Normalizes Surveillance

   Woodrow Hartzog, Evan Selinger, and Johanna Gunawan

   In Washington University Law Review, 2024

   Bib HTML PDF

   @inproceedings{hartzog-2024-wulr,
     title = {Privacy Nicks: How the Law Normalizes Surveillance},
     author = {Hartzog, Woodrow and Selinger, Evan and Gunawan, Johanna},
     year = {2024},
     publisher = {Washington University St. Louis School of Law},
     booktitle = {Washington University Law Review},
     series = {101 Wash. U. L. Rev.},
   }

2023

1. CHI Workshops

   Position Paper: What Evidence is Needed to Prove the Existence of Dark Patterns?

   Johanna Gunawan, Colin M. Gray, Cristiana Santos, and 1 more author

   CHI’23 Workshop: Designing Technology and Policy Simultaneously: Towards a Research Agenda and New Practice, 2023

   Bib PDF

   @article{gunawan-2023-chiworkshop,
     title = {Position Paper: What Evidence is Needed to Prove the Existence of Dark Patterns?},
     author = {Gunawan, Johanna and Gray, Colin M. and Santos, Cristiana and Bielova, Nataliia},
     year = {2023},
     journal = {CHI'23 Workshop: Designing Technology and Policy Simultaneously: Towards a Research Agenda and New Practice},
   }

2. CHI

   Understanding Dark Patterns in Home IoT Devices

   Monica Kowalczyk, Johanna T. Gunawan, David Choffnes, and 3 more authors

   In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, , Hamburg, Germany, , 2023

   Abs DOI Bib HTML PDF

   Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices are ubiquitous, but little attention has been paid to how they may incorporate dark patterns despite consumer protections and privacy concerns arising from their unique access to intimate spaces and always-on capabilities. This paper conducts a systematic investigation of dark patterns in 57 popular, diverse smart home devices. We update manual interaction and annotation methods for the IoT context, then analyze dark pattern frequency across device types, manufacturers, and interaction modalities. We find that dark patterns are pervasive in IoT experiences, but manifest in diverse ways across device traits. Speakers, doorbells, and camera devices contain the most dark patterns, with manufacturers of such devices (Amazon and Google) having the most dark patterns compared to other vendors. We investigate how this distribution impacts the potential for consumer exposure to dark patterns, discuss broader implications for key stakeholders like designers and regulators, and identify opportunities for future dark patterns study.

   @inproceedings{kowalcyzk-2023-chi,
     author = {Kowalczyk, Monica and Gunawan, Johanna T. and Choffnes, David and Dubois, Daniel J and Hartzog, Woodrow and Wilson, Christo},
     title = {Understanding Dark Patterns in Home IoT Devices},
     year = {2023},
     isbn = {9781450394215},
     publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
     address = {New York, NY, USA},
     url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581432},
     doi = {10.1145/3544548.3581432},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
     articleno = {179},
     numpages = {27},
     keywords = {UX design, human factors, IoT, dark patterns},
     location = {<conf-loc>, <city>Hamburg</city>, <country>Germany</country>, </conf-loc>},
     series = {CHI '23},
   }

2022

1. CSLAW

   Redress for Dark Patterns Privacy Harms? A Case Study on Consent Interactions

   Johanna Gunawan, Cristiana Santos, and Irene Kamara

   In Proceedings of the 2022 Symposium on Computer Science and Law, Washington DC, USA, 2022

   Abs DOI Bib HTML PDF

   Internet users are constantly subjected to incessant demands for attention in a noisy digital world. Countless inputs compete for the chance to be clicked, to be seen, and to be interacted with, and they can deploy tactics that take advantage of behavioral psychology to ’nudge’ users into doing what they want. Some nudges are benign; others deceive, steer, or manipulate users, as the U.S. FTC Commissioner says, "into behavior that is profitable for an online service, but often harmful to [us] or contrary to [our] intent". These tactics are dark patterns, which are manipulative and deceptive interface designs used at-scale in more than ten percent of global shopping websites and more than ninety-five percent of the most popular apps in online services. Literature discusses several types of harms caused by dark patterns that includes harms of a material nature, such as financial harms, or anticompetitive issues, as well as harms of a non-material nature, such as privacy invasion, time loss, addiction, cognitive burdens, loss of autonomy, and emotional or psychological distress. Through a comprehensive literature review of this scholarship and case law analysis conducted by our interdisciplinary team of HCI and legal scholars, this paper investigates whether harms caused by such dark patterns could give rise to redress for individuals subject to dark pattern practices using consent interactions and the GDPR consent requirements as a case study.

   @inproceedings{gunawan-2022-cslaw,
     author = {Gunawan, Johanna and Santos, Cristiana and Kamara, Irene},
     title = {Redress for Dark Patterns Privacy Harms? A Case Study on Consent Interactions},
     year = {2022},
     isbn = {9781450392341},
     publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
     address = {New York, NY, USA},
     url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3511265.3550448},
     doi = {10.1145/3511265.3550448},
     booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2022 Symposium on Computer Science and Law},
     pages = {181–194},
     numpages = {14},
     keywords = {data protection infringement, harm, damages, redress, deceptive design, dark patterns, gdpr, consent, policy and law},
     location = {Washington DC, USA},
     series = {CSLAW '22},
   }

2. EuroUSEC

   Exploring Deceptive Design Patterns in Voice Interfaces

   In European Symposium on Usable Security, 2022

   Bib HTML PDF

   @inproceedings{owens-2022-eurousec,
     year = {2022},
     title = {Exploring Deceptive Design Patterns in Voice Interfaces},
     author = {},
     booktitle = {European Symposium on Usable Security},
     url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3549015.3554213},
   }

2021

1. CSCW

   A Comparative Study of Dark Patterns Across Mobile and Web Modalities

   Johanna Gunawan, David Choffnes, Woodrow Hartzog, and 1 more author

   , Virtual Event, Canada, Oct 2021

   Bib HTML PDF

   @article{gunawan-2021-cscw,
     title = {A Comparative Study of Dark Patterns Across Mobile and Web Modalities},
     author = {Gunawan, Johanna and Choffnes, David and Hartzog, Woodrow and Wilson, Christo},
     year = {2021},
     month = oct,
     publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
     location = {Virtual Event, Canada},
     booktitle = {Conference Companion Publication of the 2021 Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing},
     series = {CSCW '21},
     bib = {gunawan-2021-cscw.bib}
   }

2. Seton Hall L. Rev.

   The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Technology Trust Gap

   Johanna Gunawan, David Choffnes, Woodrow Hartzog, and 1 more author

   Seton Hall Law Review Symposium Book on Privacy, Healthcare, and Artificial Intelligence, Oct 2021

   Bib HTML PDF

   @article{gunawan-2021-shlr,
     title = {The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Technology Trust Gap},
     author = {Gunawan, Johanna and Choffnes, David and Hartzog, Woodrow and Wilson, Christo},
     year = {2021},
     journal = {Seton Hall Law Review Symposium Book on Privacy, Healthcare, and Artificial Intelligence},
     volume = {51},
   }

3. MIT SERC

   Case Study: The Case of the Nosy Neighbors

   Johanna Gunawan, and Woodrow Hartzog

   In Case Studies in Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing, Oct 2021

   Bib HTML

   @incollection{gunawan-2021-nosyneighbors,
     title = {Case Study: The Case of the Nosy Neighbors},
     author = {Gunawan, Johanna and Hartzog, Woodrow},
     year = {2021},
     booktitle = {Case Studies in Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing},
     publisher = {MIT Schwarzman College of Computing},
   }

4. CHI Workshops

   Workshop Position Paper: Towards an Understanding of Dark Pattern Privacy Harms

   In CHI’21, Oct 2021

   Bib HTML PDF

   @inproceedings{gunawan-2021-chiworkshop,
     title = {Workshop Position Paper: Towards an Understanding of Dark Pattern Privacy Harms},
     booktitle = {CHI'21},
     booksubtitle = {What Can CHI Do About Dark Patterns?"},
     year = {2021},
   }

2020

1. BKC Medium

   Beware of Apps Bearing Gifts in a Pandemic

   Woodrow Hartzog, Johanna Gunawan, David Choffnes, and 1 more author

   Oct 2020

   Bib HTML

   @misc{hartzog-2020-bewaregifts,
     title = {Beware of Apps Bearing Gifts in a Pandemic},
     author = {Hartzog, Woodrow and Gunawan, Johanna and Choffnes, David and Wilson, Christo},
     year = {2020},
     booktitle = {Berkman Klein Center Collection on Medium},
   }