Keeping Stay signed in checked by default is incorrect
A small clarification is sought regarding the User Interface of Yahoo Mail Login Page.
It is about 'Stay signed in'.
I suppose the purpose of this checkbox is to keep the users who check this to stay logged into their mail account. This is particularly helpful for people who own personal computer. For persons who use public computers, it is not advisable for them to stay logged in after they have closed their browser without logging out.
A person who logs into a personal computer can leave this checkbox untouched as it is checked by default and then he/she has access to the mailbox without repeat logins. But a naive user using a public computer must uncheck this option everytime that he logs into the system. And by mistake if he forgets to uncheck this option, then there are chances of his mail account being misused. Moreover on some resolutions, the 'Stay signed in' does not appear without scrolling, so a naive user can enter the username and press enter without even noticing this checkbox.
Assume if we keep the checkbox unchecked by default. A personal computer user can check this option once and then he/she has access to the mailbox without repeat logins. Even if he/she forgets to check this option, they can do it any time later during subsequent logins. They have nothing to lose as there is not going to be any account breach because of not checking the option. A public computer user need not uncheck this option each time that he/she logs into the account.
In this context, would not it be safe to keep the checkbox unchecked by default to favour the public computer users for every login they have to make and let private computer users enable it at their will just once. I suppose this is something similar to autofocus on 'No' when we prompt a user for deleting a file or folder or autofocus on 'Yes' when we prompt a user for saving a file.
I had been thinking about this for a long period of time. During this long period of time, GMail has removed this option altogether. I also have my own doubts that there may be something logical behind this decision of keeping it checked by default which I am unable to grasp. May be you might have used the statistics of the number of private computer users and public computer users to arrive at this decision. Even if so, we can still favour the public computer users who login umpteen number of times compared to private computer users who needs to login just once or intermittently. Even if the private computer user logs onto a shared computer, I think keeping this option unchecked by default would help the user. Kindly let me know.
Regards
P. S. VINAYAGAM
Vinayagam Sharma
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