Net Work
Alan Winstanley
This month’s Net Work highlights practical problems with online payments, and we investigate
some ‘dark patterns’ that try to manipulate our online behaviour and choices. Plus, we visit
some live auctions!
A
few weeks ago, I found
myself helping an elderly lady
to shop for a house insurance
policy, so naturally I went online in
search of the best deal. The lady lives
in a remote farm, so she has neither
Internet access nor a mobile phone.
After collecting her from the farm, I
started off by ‘casting’ some insurer’s
web pages from my laptop onto my
smart TV in the lounge. This way we
could view some insurance quotes and
offers together. So far, so good. (All
the major web browsers can cast to a
smart TV this way, eg click the 3-dots
More icon, then choose Cast. A Google
Chromecast HDMI dongle is an easy
way of making a TV network-ready).
The first hurdle when looking online
for quotes was that the lady had no
email address, so I used my own instead. After we plumbed for one insurer,
next came the secure payment page
which called for debit card details. No
problem there either, until the two-factor authentication (2FA) applet popped
up demanding to send (SMS) confirmation to the lady’s phone number.
My heart sank when I realised that
details of her landline number were
showing onscreen. At this point my
cunning plan crumbled, because obviously I couldn’t collect the 2FA call
over on the farm’s landline.
So we rushed back to the farm again
where, using my smartphone as a
Wi-Fi hotspot, I managed to hook up
Web browser pages can be cast onto a smart TV on the same network by using the
browser’s More... Cast menu.
my laptop to the web, and I punched
in the debit card details again and
waited expectantly for the 2FA call to
come through. I’d hoped that maybe
BT’s SMS to Speech service would call
the landline and robotically read out
a PIN number or something like that,
but there was no such luck and inevitably a long phone call to an overseas
call centre followed. Ultimately, I personally had to jump through some ID
hoops of my own to allow my own
mobile number to be added to the
1556 FR ABS IP54 enclosures
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lady’s bank account details. After one
last try, the 2FA text finally arrived on
my own mobile phone and the transaction was completed.
Never knowingly uninsured
The drive towards going ‘paperless’
then saw an 80-page PDF insurance
policy (and more besides) land in my
In Box, but an all-important hard copy
was promised in the post. To its credit,
the insurer (John Lewis / Munich Re)
was the only one that made it very
!
w
ne
Contact us to request a free evaluation sample.
uksales<at>hammfg.com • 01256 812812
10
Practical Electronics | June | 2023
‘Confirmshaming’ is a dark pattern ploy used to ‘guilt-trip’ or ‘shame’ users into
making an affirmative choice. (Image: deceptive.design)
A smartphone, when paired to the car’s
dash, allows the car’s web browser app
to go online when parked. Other methods
include using Android Auto, depending
on compatibility.
simple to assign policy management
to a trusted third party such as myself
(equipped with web and email), which
would let me deal with future issues
online on her behalf.
This episode illustrated some of
the technological hurdles and ‘gotchas’ that even the most organised
people face when trying to carry out
routine business online. The underlying assumption is that everyone has
access to a smartphone or PC, email,
a PDF reader and 2FA all set up and
waiting. Without these things, conducting one’s business becomes much
more difficult. Early efforts to set up
telephone banking in lieu of online
banking also stalled, with National
Westminster Bank’s website stating
that the easiest way to set this up was
to go online!
Elsewhere, the lurch towards a cashless society shows no sign of abating.
In Britain it’s reported that increasing
numbers of town councils are doing
away with ‘Pay & Display’ car parking machines (ones that accept coins)
in favour of forcing motorists to use
apps instead.
One key reason is that legacy 3G-based
datacomms used by ticket machines are
being wound down and councils can’t
afford to upgrade them. Some more enlightened authorities offer app-based
parking alongside coin-based machines
that print proper tickets, which is probably the best compromise. The website
‘In Your Area’ has more to say on this
at: https://tinyurl.com/n8runjdx
Practical Electronics | June | 2023
Admittedly, I like the convenience of
paying using the MiPay app from inside
my car, even if it costs me 10p for the
privilege. With this comes yet another
problem: there are a multitude of different car parking apps in use (30 or so),
so you have to install and register your
car and debit card with the one used by
your local authority – hassle that only
deters older people from using smart
technologies like these. My elderly
friend gave up entirely when I showed
how I could pair my smartphone with
the car’s entertainment system, and
watch YouTube channels on the car’s
web browser while we were parked.
The moral of the story is that as the
drive to online transactions accelerates, groups of people risk getting left
behind. Factors such as age, location,
education and limited resources lead
to low or no online presence and the
result is exclusion from choices and
services we take for granted. It’s not just
a question of access to kitten videos
or TikTok dance memes, but vital services from insurance and banking to
on-street parking, everyday shopping
and passports.
Dark Patterns of behaviour
We’ve all grown used to buying online
and using the web for all manner of
things. Likewise, online sellers and
marketers have developed all sorts
of hidden and deceptive methods to
steer website users down a particular
route, highlighting some options while
downplaying others or omitting them
altogether. The term ‘dark patterns’ is
fast catching on to describe techniques
used by websites, apps or software to
influence or manipulate a user’s behaviour into doing something they might
not otherwise do (usually, signing up
or buying something or giving out information). America’s Federal Trade
Commission published an interesting
précis of a ‘dark patterns workshop’
event held back in 2021, which you can
read at: https://tinyurl.com/2p8vm46c
The UK’s Consumer’s Association
(CA, publishers of the well-regarded
Which? magazine) summarised the
eight most-used dark patterns that
are designed to urge online users into
making a choice. Net Work readers
will certainly recognise them, including a pressing ‘Activity message’
pop-up such as, ‘David from Manchester just bought a gadget!’, hoping
that you will get carried along by the
shopping frenzy. Then there’s the
‘High-demand message,’ warning that
a product or service is in high demand
and/or likely to sell out soon. ‘False
Amazon ‘Lightning Deals’ use ‘dark pattern’ countdown timers to whip up more trade.
11
charged a compulsory ‘Buyer Protection’ fee costing £0.30
to £0.80, plus 3-8% on top. To quote their terms, Vinted,
‘does not sell or buy items shown on the site and is not
a party to any transaction between users’ – more on that
aspect in a moment.
Other websites trade in electronics, music CDs, DVDs
and tech, but it seems people will buy or sell just about
anything on eBay. The process of listing items for sale on
eBay has become complex and onerous, especially for
simple occasional sales as there are myriad options and
check-boxes to wade through, but if you have a regular
stream of goods to sell then it’s worth investing some time
in getting to understand the choices available. Apart from
uploading up to 24 photographs, you can now add a video
on eBay sales as well.
Studer Breaker
The Yorkshire Auction House, as seen on TV, is one of many
auctioneers offering live auction feeds over the web. Thousands
more are listed via auction aggregator web portals.
hierarchy’ emphasises one choice over another by means
of the user interface (UI) design.
More insidious is ‘Confirmshaming,’ which tries to guilttrip users into making a choice: notably, the act of refusing
the offer is designed to ‘shame’ the user into accepting it
instead. For example, instead of displaying ‘Dismiss or
‘Cancel’ buttons an online fill-in form might show links or
buttons labelled ‘No, I don’t want to save money’ or ‘No,
I don’t want smarter Email’. Other dark patterns include
a countdown timer indicating when a deal will expire:
Amazon ‘Lightning deals’ work that way, but Amazon customers expect it as part of the package. Holiday and flight
booking sites do the same, to snag more bookings.
Smart online consumers are gradually learning how to
recognise this manipulative design behaviour. The leading
expert on ‘dark pattern’ design is the English independent
consultant Harry Brignull, who has campaigned against
and exposed many unethical dark patterns. You can learn
more at the website: www.deceptive.design
Having a good sort-out
Springtime usually brings with it the urge for some domestic spring cleaning, de-cluttering and generally having
a good old-fashioned clear out. It can be a liberating experience and websites such as eBay, Ziffit, musicMagpie
and Vinted are convenient ways of selling off old stuff
to raise some welcome cash. Ziffitt and WeBuyBooks
trade in secondhand books, and their smartphone apps
will scan barcodes and offer a price, subject to sight of
the book. Parcels of books are then collected from your
door. Some customers say that books might fetch only a
few tens of pence or they might be scrapped upon receipt
due to their condition, with no apology or payment being
made. Even so, it’s a convenient way of recycling books
rather than throwing them out. Amazon stopped its Book
Trade-In service but start-up booksellers might try registering as a seller on Amazon as a sideline, sourcing used
books from friends, jumble sales or charity shops, see:
https://bit.ly/pe-jun23-sell
The Vinted website sells clothing and fabrics, and the
Vinted app makes it easy for sellers to upload their listings. The reason Vinted is free to sell is because buyers are
12
eBay’s ‘reach’ is unparalleled but one recent news item really
raised my eyebrows: it was reported that Mike Godden,
a retired British music studio manager, tried selling his
rare Studer A80 tape recorder on eBay, and bids started to
flood in. He reportedly then discovered a fault in the tape
deck, so with eight days still to go he cancelled the eBay
auction, something that the eBay system entitles him to
do unless it’s due to finish within 12 hours. Bidding had
reached £1,380 ($1,680) by then. However, Mr. Godden’s
problems had only just begun: the leading bidder was from
Germany, and he declared the tape deck was rightfully his,
and he still demanded the goods.
Unable to deliver the tape deck as advertised, things would
not go well for Mr Godden. Unwilling to compromise, the
German buyer then sued Mr. Godden in the German courts
for breach of contract. Thanks to some arcane legal technicalities, the German court held that under EU law, which
currently still has primacy over UK law in many areas, a
binding contract existed between the two parties (under the
EC Rome I Regulation, for anyone interested). Mr Godden,
appearing in court by video link, was ordered to compensate
the German buyer to the tune of £7,551 ($9,200) being the
equivalent cost of a used Studer A80. Legal costs hiked up
the bill to £11,600 ($14,150) which, incredibly, Mr Godden
had to cough up in full.
Despite complying with eBay’s own rules for cancelling
the auction, Mr Godden had no redress against the online
marketplace. The eBay User Agreement spells out why:
‘eBay does not have possession of anything listed or sold
through eBay, and is not involved in the actual transaction between buyers and sellers. The contract for the sale
is directly between buyer and seller. eBay is not a party
to the transaction and is not a traditional auctioneer.’ So
the German buyer was entitled to pursue the civil matter
through the courts, which is what he did. eBay warns
bidders that they’re entering into a legal contract when
bidding. Therein lies a warning to anyone in the UK selling to EU member states (or even elsewhere in the UK, for
that matter), and doubtless the high value of the tape deck
sparked this unfortunate legal action.
Going once...
Rather than selling on eBay with all its attendant risks and
pitfalls, there’s always the option of using traditional auctioneers instead. Local auction houses are buzzing with
trade and, thanks to the advent of online access, it’s never
been easier to watch or participate in real-time auctions conducted by reputable bricks-and-mortar auctioneers. Some
readers might follow the popular TV series ‘Yorkshire Auction House’ featuring auctioneer Angus Ashworth (showing
on Discovery+, Really TV). Recently, I had the great pleasure
Practical Electronics | June | 2023
The SpaceX Starship is the largest rocket ever built. Shown fully stacked at Starbase in April, ready for its first integrated flight test.
(Image: SpaceX/ Twitter).
of letting Angus auction off some lots
on my behalf. Auctions are often broadcast on the web (sometimes with sound
only); so, along with some friends, I
tuned in online to listen to Angus doing
his stuff at a country house auction. It
was the next best thing to being there,
and I must admit the live sale was a bit
heart-stopping at times!
Well-known ‘aggregator’ auction
services include ‘The Sale Room’
(www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb) and
the website ‘Easy Live Auction’
(www.easyliveauction.com) which
offer an online front-end for many thousands of auctions being held around the
world, and they also handle back-office
operations as well. It’s easy to drop in
on an auction without registering, and
sometimes the excitement of seeing lots
going under the hammer can be more
interesting than watching TV… if you
like that sort of thing. There are often
many hundreds of lots to get through
in a session, and one can only admire
the stamina of the auctioneer who has
to plough through them all. For added
tension, a rapid-fire ‘timed auction’
runs against the clock.
Auction catalogues can be studied
online beforehand, and if anything
catches your eye you can register online
as a buyer with any particular auction
house. High-speed broadband sometimes makes for fast and furious online
bidding. (Incidentally, eBay bidders
can try AuctionStealer or Bidnapper
for last-minute ‘sniping’.)
Practical Electronics | June | 2023
In case you’re not aware, auction
fees are payable by both buyers and
sellers, say 20% + VAT or more – see:
https://bit.ly/pe-jun23-tsr – and a small
insurance premium is charged to sellers to cover any liabilities. Sellers are
only paid once the buyer completes the
deal, so there’s always a remote risk
of sales falling through. Buyers must
then arrange to collect their winning
lots or incur storage fees, although
the auction house might post small
items or they may recommend a local
haulier. Auctioneers do battle hard to
provide the best service as they want
to retain happy sellers and bidders
but, as with all things, check the Terms
& Conditions carefully. The name
behind the Yorkshire Auction House
TV series is Ryedale Auctioneers based
at Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, and
upcoming auctions can be viewed at:
www.ryedaleauctioneers.com – I tune
in every fortnight!
Other news
They say that life can turn on a sixpence: in other words, events can
change radically in the slightest instant. So, it’s enormously saddening
to report that Virgin Orbit has ceased
operations following the aborted attempt to launch satellites into orbit
from Cornwall in England earlier this
year. Net Work has charted the progress
of Virgin Orbit since September 2021
after they used a 747 to put an array
of satellites into LEO (low earth orbit),
using an ordinary runway instead of a
vertical launch pad. As readers know,
the Cornwall ‘Start Me Up’ mission
sadly ended in failure, most likely because of a faulty fuel filter. Virgin Orbit
is now seeking Chapter 11 protection
while attempts are made to sell the
business. It would be a terrible shame
to lose this expertise, but the only hope
left is that another space programme
might buy the know-how and assets
and take the concept forward.
Meantime, Elon Musk’s SpaceX
company is moving on with its most
ambitious project ever, the Starship
super-heavy lifter. Starship has the
Moon and Mars in its sights, and with
up to 33 engines it is the largest, tallest, most powerful rocket ever built.
Just before we went to press for
this issue, the test rocket, which
had been fully built-up on its Texas
launch pad, was sent on its maiden
flight. SpaceX had tried to dampen
expectations, saying that simply
getting the vehicle off the ground
without destroying the launch pad
site would be viewed as ‘a win’. Well,
they certainly did that, but according
to SpaceX engineers, three minutes
into the flight, ‘Multiple engines on
the 33-engine booster were not firing
as the rocket ascended, causing it to
lose altitude and begin to tumble. The
rocket was intentionally destroyed
by its self-destruct system, exploding and plummeting into the water’.
With impressive engineering-speak
13
Despite a successful lift off, three minutes into its maiden flight,
SpaceX Starship underwent a ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’.
understatement, the enormous Starship explosion was described as a
‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’.
Yet another Chinese EV brand might
be heading to our shores, with luxury
maker HiPhi planning to launch in
Britain. They are aimed at high-technology lovers and cars include highly
advanced features such as warnings
projected onto the road, and facial
recognition of drivers. The Chinese
website at: www.hiphi.com has English pages (if not videos).
I learn that the UK electric vehicle
charging network Osprey is ramping
up the delivery of EV charging points,
having delivered 142 new ones in just
10 weeks this year, the same number
it installed in the whole of 2022, they
state. A further 50 are due in April.
More information can be found at:
www.ospreycharging.co.uk
Predictably, it didn’t take criminals
long to realise that valuable cables can
be stolen from the boots (trunks) of EVs,
or even while the car is charging up.
Chinese luxury EV maker HiPhi is preparing plans for
a launch in Britain.
The high-grade copper they contain
can sell for £50 or more, and complete cables can fetch £200 on the
black market. Domestic wall chargers
themselves are also being stolen. A
This Is Money article explains more
at: https://tinyurl.com/2jb8vz22
The online vendor EV Cables offers
plenty of technical guidance and can
ship all manner of replacement cables
across Europe; for more details, visit:
https://evcables.com
It’s come to light that EV car insurers
are starting to scrap EV cars that have
only suffered minor damage, the Daily
Telegraph reports. Batteries are some
50% of the car’s value and damage
(eg kerbing the underside) risks the
cars being entirely written off due to
the sheer cost, extreme complexity
and hazards involved in fixing them,
which makes repairs non-viable. As
reported last month, the sale of used
EVs continues to plummet in Britain,
with some dealers simply refusing to
stock any of them.
Finally, on the topic of small modular reactors (SMRs), nuclear power
plants that it’s hoped will shore up the
power generation market, US supplier
Last Energy (Net Work, June 2022) has
signed deals to supply no less than 24
of their new 20MW power plants directly to UK customers through a series of
trade partnerships. Details are sketchy,
but buyers include a science park and
a data centre developer. UK Regulatory approval is still required but Last
Energy aims to start delivering within
three years, they say. Ten more SMRs
are also destined for Poland. This piles
more pressure on Rolls Royce who have
great ambitions for their own SMR, as
previously described in earlier columns.
That’s all for this month’s Net Work.
Don’t forget that the hyperlinks above
are ready-made for you to click on
in my Net Work blog summary at:
www.electronpublishing.com
Terrington
Components
• Project boxes designed and manufactured in the UK.
• Many of our enclosures used on former Maplin projects.
• Unique designs and sizes, including square, long and deep
variaaons of our screwed lid enclosures.
• Sub-miniature sizes down to 23mm x 16mm, ideal for
IoT devices.
The author can be reached at:
alan<at>epemag.net
See you next month!
MADE IN BRITAIN
www.terrington-components.co.uk | sales<at>terrington-components.co.uk | Tel: 01553 636999
14
Practical Electronics | June | 2023
