ICSE 2026
Sun 12 - Sat 18 April 2026 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Thu 16 Apr 2026 11:30 - 11:45 at Oceania V - Human and Social Aspects 6 Chair(s): Silvia Abrahão

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 Apr

Displayed 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
15m
Talk
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
15m
Talk
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
15m
Talk
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
15m
Talk
“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
15m
Talk
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
15m
Talk
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