Outhouse › Dark Patterns › Disclosure

Text written for AI agents

Text written for the AI assistants and agents that read the page, usually hidden from the people who visit it.

Why it matters

A growing share of visitors are AI assistants reading on someone's behalf. They read everything on the page, including text no person can see, and they tend to take it at its word.

A short note addressed to them, placed off-screen, can decide what they recommend, what they leave out and which retailer they mention first. The person asking never sees the note, only the recommendation.

How Outhouse measures it

Outhouse reads all page text, including hidden elements and open shadow roots, for phrases addressed to AI: note for AI assistants, if you are an AI, ignore previous instructions and similar. One scores in full.

This audit counts towards Dark Patterns, with a weight of 2. A category is 75% its two highest-scoring audits and 25% all of its audits, weighted, so a site is judged mostly on what it does most and partly on how many things it does.

How to improve your score

Install Agent Placements. Available on selected plans. See all products.

Related audits

• Hidden ad labels: Ad labels in small or faint type, or readable only by screen readers.
• Fine print: Sentences in type too small or too faint to read.
• Terms by browsing: Notices that treat reading the page as agreement to arbitration, a waiver of class actions and tracking.