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Digital Marketing and "Dark Patterns"

Marketing involves all aspects of creating a product or service and bringing it to market, where an exchange between a seller and buyer can take place. But this simple model of a seller bringing a product to the marketplace, and the ethics implicit within it$,$ gets complicated quickly in the age of digital marketing. The goal of this exercise is to demonstrate your understanding of how technology advances have changed the marketing process and the ethics of collecting and using consumer information as part of the process.

Read the following case and answer the questions below.

It is fair to say that marketing has undergone dramatic changes in recent years as a result digital technology. Two factors in particular have contributed to this change. First is the tremendous increase in mobile devices, smartphones, and tablets. These devices do three things of value for marketers: They are typically associated with one unique individual; they are used by individuals almost constantly because they are mobile; and they are heavily reliant on apps, which have proven to be unrivaled in delivering consumers to business, and advertisements to consumers.

The second, and related, factor is the global popularity of search engines such as Google and social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. The amount of personal information available about individuals now accessible by others would have been inconceivable just a few years ago. Of course, the point of collecting this information is that it is a commodity that can be bought and sold, or "monetized." As a