Frequently asked questions

What the products do, and where they stop.

The answers describe the proposed methods and commercial model. They do not create a warranty, legal opinion or certification.

The suite

Why three products rather than one dark-pattern assessment?

The products address different assessment objects. PARITY compares matched routes. MIRROR reconstructs conditional variants. MOMENT tests a person-system-context vulnerability event. Combining all three into one form would create unnecessary burden and obscure the question the organisation must answer.

Do the products replace a dark-pattern taxonomy?

No. Taxonomies remain useful for naming visible practices. The suite adds journey, architecture and contextual analysis where the visible category does not settle the mechanism or effect.

Do the tools decide whether conduct is unlawful?

No. They produce a reasoned methodological conclusion for a defined scope and evidence base. Courts, regulators and professional advisers may apply different legal tests or reach different conclusions.

Will the applications use generative AI?

Not for the core outcome. An optional future writing assistant could help convert structured findings into plain language, but deterministic and inspectable rules should control the outcome route.

Why is there no overall compliance score?

A single score can conceal a serious obstruction or exploitative adaptation by averaging it against unrelated strengths. The method keeps findings, evidence and outcomes visible.

PARITY

Does PARITY require identical entry and exit routes?

No. Security, fraud prevention, identity verification and irreversible consequences may justify additional steps. The organisation must identify and evidence the reason and use no more friction than the purpose requires.

Which pathways can PARITY compare?

Examples include subscribe/cancel, accept/reject, consent/withdraw, purchase/refund, upgrade/downgrade, account creation/deletion, data addition/removal and automated support/human escalation.

Can it cover offline steps?

Yes. Manual journey construction can include telephone calls, postal forms, in-person requirements and staff interactions.

MIRROR

Does MIRROR require access to production logs?

Not for every assessment. A team may begin with synthetic testing, feature-flag records, experiment specifications and model-output categories. A stronger conclusion requires stronger evidence. Missing access may itself prevent the organisation from supporting a claim about the system.

Does every variation amount to discrimination or manipulation?

No. Variation may support accessibility, localisation, safety, fraud prevention or consumer-requested personalisation. MIRROR asks whether the organisation can explain the trigger and purpose and whether protected routes remain effective.

Can MIRROR recreate a historical consumer experience?

Only where evidence supports reconstruction. The tool can organise logs, feature flags, variant records and test results. It cannot recover a missing experience from nothing.

MOMENT

Does MOMENT classify people as vulnerable?

No. It assesses a defined interaction among person-side conditions, system knowledge and context. The result attaches to the scenario and design, not to a permanent status assigned to the person.

Can an organisation use MOMENT to improve targeting?

No. The proposed licence expressly prohibits using the method to identify consumers who are easier to influence or to optimise exploitation.

What is a counterfactual in MOMENT?

It is an alternative experience against which the proposed adaptation can be tested, such as a non-personalised route, a cooling-off intervention, delayed monetisation or a design that gives the consumer greater control.

Data, licences and implementation

Where will assessment data be stored?

The planned applications process and save information locally in the browser by default. Users can export a JSON project file and PDF. A production security review must determine the final storage and encryption design.

Does the annual licence cover subsidiaries and clients?

No. The standard organisation licence covers one named legal entity. Group-company, adviser, consultancy, audit, external-client and white-label rights require separate terms.

When will the products become available?

The public pages describe concept products. Development will proceed in stages: PARITY first, MIRROR second and MOMENT third, followed by controlled pilots and commercial terms.