A Framework to Preserve Confidentiality in Crowdsourced Software Development

We propose a framework to preserve confidential information in a crowdsourced software development. The software industry is moving towards gig economy where majority of workforce is freelancers. The freelancers may have varying level of trust. Hence, protection of confidential information is becoming an increasingly important subject. In this paper, we discuss various challenges in protecting sensitive information in software development projects and propose a confidentiality preserving software development process. We perform a preliminary evaluation of the process. We use an information theoretic approach to protect confidential information. Results demonstrate the feasibility of the framework and uncovers several aspects that requires further research studies.