The whos, whats, and whys of issues related to personal data and data protection in open-source projects on GitHub
Data protection regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the US affect how software may handle the personal data of its users. Prior literature focused on how data protection regulations are discussed for software in operation, or how this topic is discussed in various channels outside of the software development process. Yet, what is missing, is a perspective on the impact of such regulations on the software development process. In our work, we address this gap, and explore how discussions during the development of software are impacted by regulations, who reports and discusses issues related to personal data and data protection, and how developers react to those issues. To that end, we used inductive coding to analyze 652 issues from Open Source GitHub projects and used the codes to quantitatively analyze the relation between the roles, resolutions, and data protection issues to understand correlations and predict resolutions of issues. Most notably we observed a significant increase in reporting when GDPR came into effect. The most common issue types were feature requests for privacy enhancement, which were mainly reported and discussed by frequent reporters and frequent committers. But especially issues regarding privacy enhancement were also frequently reported by one-time reporters. Most of the requests were solved without opposing votes. All in all, our findings indicate that data protection regulations effectively start discussions about privacy within the software development community.
Thu 16 AprDisplayed time zone: Brasilia, Distrito Federal, Brazil change
11:00 - 12:30 | Human and Social Aspects 6Research Track / Journal-first Papers at Oceania V Chair(s): Silvia Abrahão Universitat Politècnica de València | ||
11:00 15mTalk | Developer reactions to protestware in open source software: the cases of color.js and es5.ext Journal-first Papers Youmei Fan Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Dong Wang Tianjin University, Supatsara Wattanakriengkrai Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Hathaichanok Damrongsiri Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Christoph Treude Singapore Management University, Hideaki Hata Shinshu University, Raula Gaikovina Kula The University of Osaka Link to publication DOI Pre-print | ||
11:15 15mTalk | Addressing OSS Community Managers’ Challenges in Contributor Retention Journal-first Papers Zixuan Feng Oregon State University, USA, Katie Kimura Oregon State University, Bianca Trinkenreich Colorado State University, Igor Steinmacher RESHAPE LAB, Northern Arizona University, USA, Marco Gerosa Northern Arizona University, Anita Sarma Oregon State University Pre-print | ||
11:30 15mTalk | The whos, whats, and whys of issues related to personal data and data protection in open-source projects on GitHub Journal-first Papers Anne Hennig Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Lukas Schulte University of Passau, Steffen Herbold University of Passau, Oksana Kulyk IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Peter Mayer University of Southern Denmark Link to publication DOI | ||
11:45 15mTalk | “Write in English, Nobody Understands Your Language Here”: A Study of Non-English Trends in Open-Source Repositories Research Track Masudul Hasan Masud Bhuiyan CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, Germany, Manish Kumar Bala Kumar CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security, Cristian-Alexandru Staicu Endor Labs | ||
12:00 15mTalk | How Does Core Contributor Disengagement Impact Open Source Project Activity? A Quasi-Experiment Research Track Yunqi Chen Zhejiang University, Klaas-Jan Stol Lero; University College Cork; SINTEF Digital , Fabio Marcos De Abreu Santos Colorado State University, USA, Daniel M. German University of Victoria, Bianca Trinkenreich Colorado State University | ||
12:15 15mTalk | An empirical Analysis of Community and Coding Patterns in OSS4SG vs. Conventional OSS Research Track Mohamed Ouf Queen’s University, Shayan Noei Queen's University, Zeph Van Iterson Queen's University, Mariam Guizani Queen's University, Canada, Ying Zou Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario Pre-print | ||