ShadeGuard - Dark Pattern Detector

Detects manipulative dark patterns on websites: fake countdowns, false scarcity, hidden fees, and forced continuity traps.

STOP BEING MANIPULATED ONLINE. ShadeGuard automatically scans every website you visit for 14 types of dark patterns the manipulative design tricks used by ecommerce sites subscription services and marketing funnels to pressure you into making decisions you would not otherwise make Every time you land on a webpage ShadeGuard analyzes the content page structure and interface for deceptive tactics and instantly warns you when it finds them A floating banner appears on the page showing exactly what was detected while the extension badge displays the total number of dark patterns found Once you start seeing dark patterns you cannot unsee them ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ WHAT SHADEGUARD DETECTS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ FAKE COUNTDOWN TIMERS That ends in 02 14 33 timer might not be real Many sites use countdown timers that reset never expire or exist solely to create urgency ShadeGuard identifies suspicious countdown patterns and warns you before they influence your decision ⚠️ FALSE SCARCITY AND URGENCY Only 3 left in stock and 482 people are viewing this right now are designed to make you panic buy ShadeGuard detects scarcity language urgency tactics and artificial pressure designed to rush purchases 🏷️ AGGRESSIVE PROMOTIONS 90 percent off exclusive offer you have been selected ShadeGuard identifies inflated discounts fake voucher popups exaggerated sale claims and gamified promotions designed to capture your attention and your email address 💰 HIDDEN FEES Products that suddenly cost more at checkout are frustrating by design ShadeGuard detects language that suggests additional service fees processing fees convenience charges or unexpected checkout costs 🔄 SUBSCRIPTION TRAPS Free trials that silently convert into paid subscriptions Auto renewal hidden in fine print recurring charges that are not clearly disclosed ShadeGuard helps surface these patterns before you commit 😤 CONFIRMSHAMING No thanks I do not like saving money These guilt based messages are designed to make declining an offer feel foolish ShadeGuard identifies manipulative confirmshaming language across the web 🎭 MISDIRECTION Cookie banners and consent dialogs often make Accept All obvious while hiding alternatives ShadeGuard analyzes consent interfaces and highlights visual design intended to steer your choices 📦 FORCED ACTION Pre checked boxes automatic newsletter signups and unwanted extras ShadeGuard scans forms for options that may have been selected on your behalf 🤫 SNEAKING Items added without clear consent unexpected changes during checkout hidden modifications to your selections ShadeGuard watches for these subtle but costly tactics 👥 FAKE SOCIAL PROOF Sarah from London just bought this item These notifications often exist to manufacture urgency and trust ShadeGuard identifies social proof manipulation patterns used across shopping websites 🚧 HARD TO CANCEL Easy to sign up difficult to leave If cancellation requires unnecessary steps hidden menus phone calls or excessive effort ShadeGuard flags it 🔒 PRIVACY ZUCKERING Consent flows designed to push you into sharing more personal data than intended ShadeGuard identifies manipulative privacy and cookie banner patterns 🎰 GAMIFICATION TRAPS Spin wheels scratch cards mystery prizes lucky draws and similar tactics designed to exchange your personal information for questionable rewards 🐜 ROACH MOTEL Easy to get in hard to get out ShadeGuard detects situations where signing up is simple but cancelling or leaving is intentionally difficult ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ HOW IT WORKS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ShadeGuard runs entirely inside your browser Every time you visit a webpage it scans visible content and page structure for known dark pattern signals When it finds something suspicious it • Shows an on page warning banner • Highlights suspicious elements directly on the page • Updates the extension badge with the number of detections • Calculates a Trust Score from 0 to 100 for the page • Assigns a Confidence Score from 0 to 100 percent to every detection • Saves results locally so you can review them later Each detection includes the matched text a unique identifier a severity level and a confidence rating so you can understand exactly what was found and why ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SMARTER DETECTION FEWER FALSE POSITIVES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Not every countdown is a dark pattern and not every popup is manipulative ShadeGuard now uses multi factor analysis to evaluate detections based on • Text specificity • Element prominence • Contextual signals • Selector strength • Commercial intent Shopping related detections only trigger when a page shows signs of commercial activity such as pricing carts checkout flows or purchase language This significantly reduces false positives on blogs news websites forums streaming platforms and other non commercial sites Video timestamps media players and generic time displays are also excluded from countdown detection ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ CONFIDENCE SCORING ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Every detection includes a Confidence Score from 0 to 100 percent Instead of simply telling you something might be a dark pattern ShadeGuard shows how confident it is using clear visual indicators This helps you separate strong detections from weaker signals and understand how each result was determined ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ FIND EXACTLY WHAT WAS DETECTED ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ No more guessing what triggered a warning Every detection now includes precise element location tracking Click any detection and ShadeGuard will automatically scroll to the exact element and flash highlight it on the page Each instance also includes • Matched text • Unique identifier • Highlight toggle per element • Option to highlight all instances of a pattern • Option to clear all highlights instantly ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ HISTORY AND PRIVACY ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ShadeGuard stores everything locally inside your browser No accounts no tracking no data leaving your device You can revisit past detections review patterns across sites and control what is highlighted at any time ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ FIGHT BACK AGAINST MANIPULATION ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Dark patterns work because they are invisible ShadeGuard makes them visible Install it today and take back control of your online experience Your wallet will thank you.