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> The balance needs to be somewhere It might be a controversial opinion, but I think that the balance should always lean closer to the user's side, not develop

by ko27 9y ago

> The balance needs to be somewhere It might be a controversial opinion, but I think that the balance should always lean closer to the user's side, not developer's.

jarym 9y ago
I agree with you on 'lean'. But say I'm building a web-app that accesses medical records and I don't want sensitive fields being auto-completed by a browser. Forcing autocomplete in this instance does a dis-service to both users and developers.
- jhasse 9y ago
  Why not? The user knows that the browser remembers field inputs, he wouldnt expect it to be different for your website. So if he really wanted the browser not to remember anything he typed in, he would use private mode or clear his recent history afterwards. Because then there's the teacher who has to put in medical data for a whole class where everyone got the flu. The teacher is happy the browser does it job like always and that you couldn't dictate what is best for him.
  - jarym 9y ago
    'Why not?' you ask? Let's look at HIPAA for starters: https://www.quora.com/Do-current-HIPAA-rules-require-publicly-viewable-machines-to-not-have-tabular-lists-pull-down-menus-of-patients-or-autocomplete-except-for-fully-unique-matches https://www.quora.com/Do-current-HIPAA-rules-require-publicl... "In summary, HIPAA does not specifically limit the use of drop down menus or auto-complete, but if patient information was exposed to the public through these features your business would have failed to control access to the protected health information." So now there's a risk that if a user of a medical information system uses a shared computer (say one at home but that friends and family occasionally use) you can't be sure to have protected control. It's all very well saying 'users should use private browsing mode' - you try enforcing that consistently when you have hundreds of users. Ultimately, you end up having to restrict access which is why I felt it does a dis-service to users.
    - jhasse 9y ago
      You shouldn't enforce anything, since you can't really anyway: The shared computer might record the screen or have a key-logger installed.
      - jarym 9y ago
        Well then let's just throw away any kind of data entry then since any computer might have a key logger installed.... sigh
        jhasse 9y ago
        > any computer might have a key logger installed You know very well that for your own computer it's very unlikely that it has a key logger. But not for public computers, so it's a good thing that users are aware of that.

by ko27 9y ago

> The balance needs to be somewhere It might be a controversial opinion, but I think that the balance should always lean closer to the user's side, not developer's.

jarym 9y ago

I agree with you on 'lean'. But say I'm building a web-app that accesses medical records and I don't want sensitive fields being auto-completed by a browser. Forcing autocomplete in this instance does a dis-service to both users and developers.

jhasse 9y ago
Why not? The user knows that the browser remembers field inputs, he wouldnt expect it to be different for your website. So if he really wanted the browser not to remember anything he typed in, he would use private mode or clear his recent history afterwards. Because then there's the teacher who has to put in medical data for a whole class where everyone got the flu. The teacher is happy the browser does it job like always and that you couldn't dictate what is best for him.
- jarym 9y ago
  'Why not?' you ask? Let's look at HIPAA for starters: https://www.quora.com/Do-current-HIPAA-rules-require-publicly-viewable-machines-to-not-have-tabular-lists-pull-down-menus-of-patients-or-autocomplete-except-for-fully-unique-matches https://www.quora.com/Do-current-HIPAA-rules-require-publicl... "In summary, HIPAA does not specifically limit the use of drop down menus or auto-complete, but if patient information was exposed to the public through these features your business would have failed to control access to the protected health information." So now there's a risk that if a user of a medical information system uses a shared computer (say one at home but that friends and family occasionally use) you can't be sure to have protected control. It's all very well saying 'users should use private browsing mode' - you try enforcing that consistently when you have hundreds of users. Ultimately, you end up having to restrict access which is why I felt it does a dis-service to users.
  - jhasse 9y ago
    You shouldn't enforce anything, since you can't really anyway: The shared computer might record the screen or have a key-logger installed.
    - jarym 9y ago
      Well then let's just throw away any kind of data entry then since any computer might have a key logger installed.... sigh
      - jhasse 9y ago
        > any computer might have a key logger installed You know very well that for your own computer it's very unlikely that it has a key logger. But not for public computers, so it's a good thing that users are aware of that.