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AntiTrapLens

Advanced OSINT + UX watchdog that scans websites for manipulative design patterns using AI-powered detection.

AI-Powered
Dark Patterns
Privacy Analysis

Category

OSINT Tool

Type

Privacy Analysis

Status

Active

Focus

Dark Patterns

Project Overview

AntiTrapLens is an advanced OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) tool that serves as a digital detective, uncovering hidden manipulation tactics on websites. Using cutting-edge AI and web scraping technology, it detects “dark patterns” - those sneaky design tricks that trick users into unwanted actions.

The tool analyzes websites for 18+ different types of dark patterns, from misleading buttons and hidden costs to aggressive ads and privacy violations. It provides comprehensive reports with educational insights about how these patterns affect user experience and privacy.

This project demonstrates expertise in ethical hacking, privacy advocacy, web scraping, natural language processing, and building tools that empower users to make informed decisions about their digital interactions.

Key Features

AI-powered detection of 18+ dark patterns with detailed user impact analysis

Advanced web crawling with anti-bot protection and realistic browser fingerprints

Comprehensive cookie analysis with privacy implications and third-party tracking detection

Smart image classification for website categorization (e-commerce, social media, adult, etc.)

Intelligent scoring system grading websites A-F based on darkness level

Modern HTML reports with separated dark patterns and tracking analysis sections

Educational content explaining what each pattern means and how it affects users

Modular architecture with clean separation of concerns and extensible plugin system

Fast and reliable performance with robust error handling and retry logic

Multiple output formats: HTML, JSON, Markdown, and console reports

Technologies Used

Python 3.8+
Playwright
BeautifulSoup4
SpaCy (NLP)
Rich (Terminal UI)
Pytest
Dataclasses
Argparse
AsyncIO
Requests
Pillow (PIL)
JSON
HTML/CSS
JavaScript

Key Learnings

Advanced web scraping techniques with anti-bot countermeasures
Natural Language Processing for content analysis and pattern detection
Ethical considerations in privacy and user manipulation detection
Building modular, extensible software architectures for research tools
Performance optimization for large-scale web crawling operations
Data visualization and reporting for complex analytical results
Open-source project management and community engagement
Privacy-first development practices and data handling ethics