From the course: Interaction Design for the Web

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Smart defaults

Smart defaults

From the course: Interaction Design for the Web

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Smart defaults

- Let's talk about Wi-Fi security, specifically, all those houses in a neighborhood that still have the manufacturer's default network names, passwords and encryption settings. Although it's great when you need to borrow some quick, free internet connectivity, all of those people are leaving themselves open to security risks and abuse. The reason that lots of Wi-Fi access points ship with security disabled, is because manufacturers and internet service providers are scared of high support costs, and return rates if people can't get the device set up and working really easily. But it doesn't have to be that way. Some manufacturers now use the device's serial number or another number printed on the hardware as the default wireless encryption key. In one study, doing that changed encryption usage from around 23% up to around 96%. What these manufacturers have done, is to use a smart default that's still easy enough to use, but also puts users in a safer state, as the default behavior…

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