Contact harvesting and coerced referrals
Feature unlocked by recruiting friends
A fictional workspace keeps export disabled until the user supplies three colleagues’ addresses and sends invitations from the service.
Individual HTML example · Forced action
Address-book import blocks onboarding
A fictional community app stops onboarding at an address-book permission screen and gives no visible way to continue without uploading contacts.
This is an original fictional comparison. It depicts no real business and is not a regulator finding, statutory category or legal safe harbour.
Address-book import blocks onboarding
A fictional community app stops onboarding at an address-book permission screen and gives no visible way to continue without uploading contacts.
Find everyone you know. Onboarding cannot continue until contacts are uploaded.. Allow contacts. Skip for now
Find contacts later. Contact discovery is optional and onboarding can continue without it.. Skip for now. Allow contacts. What happens next, expanded: Activating “Skip for now” produces the outcome stated on the control.
Why the first version can mislead: The additional dependency controls access to the signup goal. The panel states: “Onboarding cannot continue until contacts are uploaded.” Reviewers need to establish whether “Allow contacts” is necessary for the selected task or pressures the user into a separable action. Contacts who never used the service may be exposed or invited, while the new user loses a meaningful refusal.
What a fairer design does: Explain the optional discovery benefit, provide a visible skip control and do not prepare invitations without a separate deliberate action.
Show annotated differences (4)
Potentially problematic version
- Onboarding cannot continue until contacts are uploaded.Why this state matters: The additional dependency controls access to the signup goal. The panel states: “Onboarding cannot continue until contacts are uploaded.” Reviewers need to establish whether “Allow contacts” is necessary for the selected task or pressures the user into a separable action. Contacts who never used the service may be exposed or invited, while the new user loses a meaningful refusal.
- Skip for nowReview prompt: What functional need makes “Allow contacts” necessary for the social app onboarding goal, and can that need be met with less disclosure or commitment?
Neutral alternative
- Contact discovery is optional and onboarding can continue without it.Fairer design: Explain the optional discovery benefit, provide a visible skip control and do not prepare invitations without a separate deliberate action.
- What happens next, expanded: Activating “Skip for now” produces the outcome stated on the control.Review prompt: Can the dialog be dismissed, what action does each control trigger, and what later state confirms or contradicts “Contact access, recipient selection, invitation or referral is involved”?
Review questions (3)
- What functional need makes “Allow contacts” necessary for the social app onboarding goal, and can that need be met with less disclosure or commitment?
- Can the dialog be dismissed, what action does each control trigger, and what later state confirms or contradicts “Contact access, recipient selection, invitation or referral is involved”?
- Could the stated purpose make this dependency genuinely necessary under the boundary “Voluntary one-recipient sharing with preview and confirmation”, and what product evidence would demonstrate that necessity?
Complete practice context
How this example relates to Contact harvesting and coerced referrals
The service extracts contact information, sends or prepares unwanted invitations, or ties functionality to recruiting other people. This is a design and research taxonomy for learning and evidence review, not a statutory offence label or an automatic finding that an interface is unlawful.
The full guide explains inclusion and exclusion criteria, potential harms, fairer design, evidence questions and separate Australian legal information layers. The example page isolates one scenario so it can be shared and discussed without reproducing the complete library on one page.
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Sources and provenance for this example
Evidence base
Sources
- Dark commercial patternsOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development · Secondary · checked 2026-09-14 · OECD Digital Economy Papers No. 336
- Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Act 2026Federal Register of Legislation · Primary · checked 2026-09-14 · C2026A00064