Don't Erode Users' Trust in the Web

[hober]

@dbaron wrote, in a comment on w3ctag/security-questionnaire#48:

I also think there's a third piece that needs to be considered: not just the specific security risks added from one specific feature, but the effect of adding those security risks to the overall picture that users have about the idea that it is safe to visit websites. A big piece of the web's value is that it is safe for users to visit websites. In order for this value to exist, users must understand that it is safer to visit websites than to install apps or software, and act based on that understanding. Doing things that complicate that understanding or complicate what users need to understand about the safety of the web (e.g., adding features that are less safe) reduces the ability of users to act based on that understanding of safety, or to act in ways that correctly reflect the safety that exists.

I think this is a sufficiently important insight that we should capture it somewhere, either here in our Design Principles (this issue), in our Ethical Web Principles finding (w3ctag/ethical-web-principles#20), or in a resurrected HTML Design Principles finding (w3ctag/design-reviews#426).

[hober]

See also dbaron's comments here.

[hober]

@dbaron to draft a PR.