> c) bad actors will learn to trick users into making the choices they want
Bad actors have been doing this for years, abusing Apple's amazingly convenient payment APIs, like a "Heart Rate Monitor" app that prompted users to put their finger on the touch ID sensor, and then throw up an $99 IAP screen which would be immediately purchased because the user's finger was already on the touch ID https://www.wired.com/story/iphone-touch-id-scam-apps/
Is there a name for this pattern? Changing the user interface immediately before the user interacts with it? It's not normally a dark pattern like this but as far as I know it's an unsolved problem. E.g. I go to click a button but 50 milliseconds before that the app has decided to change layouts and now I click a completely different button than I meant to.
This is very much a solved problem (see: coyote time), and is solved (for free!!!) by OS’s and web browsers. When you implement your own controls and do stupid stuff with JavaScript, you end up with exactly as you say.
My first job was for a telecoms startup, this concept is called "glare" there. E.g. I go to touch the screen to make a call, but someone starts calling my while my finger is in motion so the UI changes and I press a button that I didn't mean to.
> c) bad actors will learn to trick users into making the choices they want
Bad actors have been doing this for years, abusing Apple's amazingly convenient payment APIs, like a "Heart Rate Monitor" app that prompted users to put their finger on the touch ID sensor, and then throw up an $99 IAP screen which would be immediately purchased because the user's finger was already on the touch ID https://www.wired.com/story/iphone-touch-id-scam-apps/