Software Privacy in Practice

Are privacy regulations being implemented as they should?

Recent years have seen a surge in regulations aimed at protecting the privacy of software users and their data. Nevertheless, society continues to experience blatant violations of user privacy. This project, titled “Developer Implementation of Privacy in Software Systems,” studies how developers respond to new privacy regulations and identifies strategies for closing the gaps where implementation falls short.   

The project brings together computer scientists with expertise in security, privacy, and usability, with legal and organizational behavior scholars with expertise in privacy law, algorithmic fairness, network consensus mechanisms, and computational linguistics. We are working to:

• Study how new privacy laws are impacting software systems by examining the discussions developers are having among themselves, in public code repositories, bug tracking systems, and online fora.
• Contextualize these discussions by comparing them to the language of privacy used in the laws and regulations themselves, the public comments around the laws, and the broader public conversation on privacy.
• Propose solutions to more effectively align development practice with regulatory constraints.

Software developers are responsible for ensuring that the legal framework for user privacy is implemented correctly in the software code. Writing privacy-conscious code requires developers to develop a thorough and nuanced understanding of the regulatory demands. By examining how developers react to new privacy regulations, shifting regulatory frameworks, new case law, and widely publicized privacy breaches, we will better understand the challenges and misunderstandings developers face and inform recommendations to improve compliance and make software safer for all.

Project Team

Outcomes

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