Link to Site settings / Site permissions

If a user does not grant a permission for a website, and then changes his mind, it is very difficult to explain to the end user how to open the Site settings. Different browsers (or the same browser on different OS) have different UIs and offer different ways to access to the Site settings.

A website that needs a permission (which is blocked) can display a message like this:

Please change your permission for XYZ in the browser settings.

However most users don’t know how to access the Site settings. For this reason it would be useful if websites could provide a link to site settings. For example:

Please change your permission for XYZ in the <a href="browser://site-settings">browser settings</a>.

Also it would be useful if browsers UIs could provide a consistent and user-friendly way to access to the site settings. For example, hiding the site settings under the lock icon in the address bar seems a really bad idea for user experience.

I would like to underly that opening the Site / App settings is something safe, which is already available for native apps:

• Android native apps: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32822101/how-to-programmatically-open-the-permission-screen-for-a-specific-app-on-android
• iOS native apps: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5655674/opening-the-settings-app-from-another-app

I think it’s an interesting idea – it could potentially allow browsers to make permissions request to more easily deniable, if sites had a feasible way for users who wanted to change their mind later to do so. Letting users change their mind (both to retract and to grant permissions) is an important property.

I’m sure it could also be abused in terms of trying to force users to comply, but there might be ways to limit that: for example, it could be just a link href (as in your example) requiring user interaction, rather than something that the site can automatically navigate the user to. And it could also be spoofed (that might especially problematic on mobile devices where sites often take up the whole screen real estate anyway), but a spoofed settings site for enabling permissions is less likely to cause harm.