How Developers Talk About Personal Data and What It Means for User Privacy

• DOI: 10.1145/3432919
• Publication Date: 2021-01-05T18:43:37Z
• Authors: Tianshi Li; Elizabeth Louie; Laura Dabbish; Jason I. Hong
• Keywords: Android app

While online developer forums are major resources of knowledge for application developers, their roles in promoting better privacy practices remain underexplored. In this paper, we conducted a qualitative analysis sample 207 threads (4772 unique posts) mentioning different forms personal data from the /r/androiddev forum on Reddit. We started with bottom-up open coding sampled posts to develop typology discussions about use and follow-up analyses understand what types elicited in-depth issues or mentioned risky practices. Our results show that Android developers rarely discussed concerns when talking specific app design implementation problem, but often had active around stimulated by certain external events representing new privacy-enhancing restrictions operating system, store policies, laws. Developers felt these could cause considerable cost yet fail generate any compelling benefit themselves. Given results, present set suggestions OS more effective methods enhance privacy, forums(e.g., /r/androiddev) encourage nudge think privacy.