[whatwg] [WF2] Objection to autocomplete Attribute

[Matthew Thomas]

Lachlan Hunt wrote:
>...
>    - Both users and user agent vendors complain to the organisation
>      about not allowing them access.

They already tried that, and it didn't work. 
<https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=63961>

(Don't bother complaining in that bug report -- it's four years old, and 
most of those involved no longer have any contact with Bugzilla.)

>    - Organisations excercising user-hostile behaviour to exclude a large
>      portion of their users either give in to the pressure.

It's not a large portion of their users. For most banking sites, I 
suspect the *only* browser which they cannot economically get away with 
blocking for security reasons is Internet Explorer for Windows, and that 
browser already supports autocomplete="off".

That's why I say the only way to kill autocomplete="off" in the short 
term is to convince Microsoft to de-implement it 
<http://listserver.dreamhost.com/pipermail/whatwg-whatwg.org/2005-March/003185.html> 
In the long term, if browser usage becomes more diverse, the problem 
will become harder to solve; you'll need to assemble a coalition of 
browser vendors who agree publicly to de-implement it simultaneously.

>...
> This issue could be addressed by making user agents much easier to 
> configure for public terminals.

Yes, and if you can help them implement that, you should. But banks 
aren't going to twiddle their thumbs waiting.

-- 
Matthew Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/