---
_id: '64823'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: "Current legal frameworks enforce that Android developers accurately report
    the data their apps collect. However, large codebases can make this reporting
    challenging. This paper employs an empirical approach to understand developers'
    experience with Google Play Store's Data Safety Section (DSS) form.\r\n\r\nWe
    first survey 41 Android developers to understand how they categorize privacy-related
    data into DSS categories and how confident they feel when completing the DSS form.
    To gain a broader and more detailed view of the challenges developers encounter
    during the process, we complement the survey with an analysis of 172 online developer
    discussions, capturing the perspectives of 642 additional developers. Together,
    these two data sources represent insights from 683 developers.\r\n\r\nOur findings
    reveal that developers often manually classify the privacy-related data their
    apps collect into the data categories defined by Google-or, in some cases, omit
    classification entirely-and rely heavily on existing online resources when completing
    the form. Moreover, developers are generally confident in recognizing the data
    their apps collect, yet they lack confidence in translating this knowledge into
    DSS-compliant disclosures. Key challenges include issues in identifying privacy-relevant
    data to complete the form, limited understanding of the form, and concerns about
    app rejection due to discrepancies with Google's privacy requirements.\r\nThese
    results underscore the need for clearer guidance and more accessible tooling to
    support developers in meeting privacy-aware reporting obligations. "
author:
- first_name: Mugdha
  full_name: Khedkar, Mugdha
  id: '88024'
  last_name: Khedkar
- first_name: Michael
  full_name: Schlichtig, Michael
  id: '32312'
  last_name: Schlichtig
  orcid: 0000-0001-6600-6171
- first_name: Mohamed Aboubakr Mohamed
  full_name: Soliman, Mohamed Aboubakr Mohamed
  id: '102489'
  last_name: Soliman
- first_name: Eric
  full_name: Bodden, Eric
  id: '59256'
  last_name: Bodden
  orcid: 0000-0003-3470-3647
citation:
  ama: 'Khedkar M, Schlichtig M, Soliman MAM, Bodden E. Challenges in Android Data
    Disclosure: An Empirical Study. In: <i>Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM 13th International
    Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft ’26). Association
    for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 65–68.</i> ; 2026.'
  apa: 'Khedkar, M., Schlichtig, M., Soliman, M. A. M., &#38; Bodden, E. (2026). Challenges
    in Android Data Disclosure: An Empirical Study. <i>Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM
    13th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft
    ’26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 65–68.</i> 13th
    International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems 2024, Rio
    de Janeiro, Brazil.'
  bibtex: '@inproceedings{Khedkar_Schlichtig_Soliman_Bodden_2026, title={Challenges
    in Android Data Disclosure: An Empirical Study.}, booktitle={Proceedings of the
    IEEE/ACM 13th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems
    (MOBILESoft ’26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 65–68.},
    author={Khedkar, Mugdha and Schlichtig, Michael and Soliman, Mohamed Aboubakr
    Mohamed and Bodden, Eric}, year={2026} }'
  chicago: 'Khedkar, Mugdha, Michael Schlichtig, Mohamed Aboubakr Mohamed Soliman,
    and Eric Bodden. “Challenges in Android Data Disclosure: An Empirical Study.”
    In <i>Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM 13th International Conference on Mobile Software
    Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft ’26). Association for Computing Machinery,
    New York, NY, USA, 65–68.</i>, 2026.'
  ieee: 'M. Khedkar, M. Schlichtig, M. A. M. Soliman, and E. Bodden, “Challenges in
    Android Data Disclosure: An Empirical Study.,” presented at the 13th International
    Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems 2024, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
    2026.'
  mla: 'Khedkar, Mugdha, et al. “Challenges in Android Data Disclosure: An Empirical
    Study.” <i>Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM 13th International Conference on Mobile
    Software Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft ’26). Association for Computing Machinery,
    New York, NY, USA, 65–68.</i>, 2026.'
  short: 'M. Khedkar, M. Schlichtig, M.A.M. Soliman, E. Bodden, in: Proceedings of
    the IEEE/ACM 13th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and
    Systems (MOBILESoft ’26). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA,
    65–68., 2026.'
conference:
  end_date: 2026-04-18
  location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  name: 13th International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems 2024
  start_date: 2026-04-12
date_created: 2026-03-04T08:10:43Z
date_updated: 2026-03-13T12:10:10Z
department:
- _id: '76'
external_id:
  arxiv:
  - '2601.20459'
keyword:
- static analysis
- data collection
- data protection
- privacy-aware reporting
language:
- iso: eng
publication: Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM 13th International Conference on Mobile Software
  Engineering and Systems (MOBILESoft '26). Association for Computing Machinery, New
  York, NY, USA, 65–68.
status: public
title: 'Challenges in Android Data Disclosure: An Empirical Study.'
type: conference
user_id: '88024'
year: '2026'
...