The Year in Tech, 2023: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review

12 DO YOUR DIGITAL DESIGN CHOICES TAKE ADVANTAGE OF CUSTOMERS?

by Michael Luca and Fiona Scott Morton

When tech companies exploit customers, they risk undermining trust in the entire digital ecosystem. One common form of exploitation occurs when digital platforms are designed to take advantage of customers’ behavioral biases. Managers need to understand these biases and make a good faith effort to earn customer trust with ethical platform design choices.

Policy makers in Europe and the UK have studied how the design and architecture of online interactions impact consumers and markets, and they have already issued regulations to protect consumers. More recently, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has begun to study the issue as well, but currently ...