The perspective of Brazilian software developers on data privacy

• Context: Maintaining the privacy of user data is a concern in software development to satisfy customer needs or to comply with privacy laws. Recent studies have shown that software development approaches still neglect non-functional requirements, including privacy. Concern about privacy may increase in the period between when a privacy law is initially announced and when it is passed into law. During this period, companies will be challenged to comply with the new law. Research has shown that many developers do not have sufficient knowledge to develop privacy-preserving software systems.Objective: We investigate the level of knowledge and understanding that developers possess regarding privacy. We explore the personal, behavioural, and external environmental factors affecting a developer's decision-making regarding privacy requirements.Methods: We replicated a study by means of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with thirteen practitioners at six companies. Our data analysis is based on the principles of ‘grounded theory codification’.Results: We identified nine personal factors, five behavioural factors, and seven external environment factors that are relevant to how software developers make decisions regarding.Conclusion: Our identification of factors that influence the development of privacy-preserving software systems can be seen as a contribution to the specification of effective methods for securing privacy. © 2022 Elsevier Inc.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap -- Programvaruteknik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences -- Software Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Computer software

Customer satisfaction

Privacy-preserving techniques

Software design

Customer need

Empirical studies

Non-functional requirements

Privacy law

Privacy preserving

Privacy requirements

Software developer

Software development approach

Software-systems

User data

Decision making

Empirical study

Software development

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)