Analyzing Users' Attitude toward Software Data Collection

Collecting software-related data is essential to improve software quality and software development processes. In recent years, such data are collected on the users' computer and sent to a server computer. For example, when a software crashes, Android OS displays a form that asks for comments that are manually input by users and sends software-related data on submission. To promote such data collection, we analyzed users' attitude toward data collection. We assumed three types of data collection, i.e., software crash report, user operation of applications, and an activity log of software development. We surveyed 21 students whose major was information science. In the questionnaire, we enquired about their attitudes (e.g., cooperative or not) toward data collection and the reasons for the same. In addition, we asked whether they assumed their trust toward data collecting organizations was high. When risk communication shares exact information of risks to stakeholders, risk recognition is affected by trust. When sending data, users are concerned about the risks of private data leakage. If the users consider that the risk of data collection is low, they will cooperate more with the collection. Our results suggest that explicitly outlining the benefits of cooperation enhances user cooperation. Furthermore, trust toward the data collecting organization is also important for cooperation.