Data, Data, Everywhere: Quantifying Software Developers’ Privacy Attitudes

Dirk van der Linden, Irit Hadar, Matthew Edwards, Awais Rashid

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Understanding developers’ attitudes towards handling personal data is vital in order to understand whether the software they create handles their users’ privacy fairly. We present the results of a study adapting an existing user-focused privacy concern scale to a software development context and running it with a sample of 123 software developers, in order to validate it and develop a model for measuring the extent to which a software developer is (dis)favorable to ensuring their users’ privacy. The developed scale exceeds thresholds for internal reliability (α>.8), composite reliability (CR >.8), and convergent validity (AVE >.6). Our findings identified a model consisting of three factors that allows for understanding of developers’ attitudes, including: (1) informed consent, (2) data minimization, and (3) data monetization. Through analysis of results from the scale’s deployment, we further discuss mismatches between developers’ attitudes and their self-perceived extent of properly handling their users’ privacy, and the importance of understanding developers’ attitudes towards data monetization.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSocio-Technical Aspects in Security and Trust - 9th International Workshop, STAST 2019, Revised Selected Papers
EditorsThomas Groß, Theo Tryfonas
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH
Pages47-65
Number of pages19
ISBN (Print)9783030559571
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
Event9th International Workshop on Socio-Technical Aspects in Security and Trust, STAST 2019 - Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Duration: 26 Sep 201926 Sep 2019

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume11739 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference9th International Workshop on Socio-Technical Aspects in Security and Trust, STAST 2019
Country/TerritoryLuxembourg
CityLuxembourg
Period26/09/1926/09/19

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Keywords

  • Attitude
  • Developer
  • Privacy
  • Scale development

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Theoretical Computer Science
  • General Computer Science

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