Publications

Journal Articles

Authors: Lauren Olson, Neelam Tjikhoeri, Emitzá Guzmán
Journal: Empirical Software Engineering
Abstract: This study analyzes ethical concerns in users’ app store reviews, highlighting issues like censorship, identity theft, and safety. We collected five million reviews, manually labeled a sample, and found that ethical concerns are prevalent, often resulting in longer, more popular, and lower-rated reviews. Our findings suggest high potential for automated classification and emphasize the importance of considering ethical concerns in software development.
Link: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2401.11063

Authors: Lauren Olson, Emitzá Guzman, Florian Kunneman
Conference: 2023 IEEE/ACM 45th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Society (ICSE-SEIS)
Abstract: We identified ethical concerns of marginalized communities about social platforms by analyzing 586 subreddits. Our findings show that these concerns primarily involve discrimination and misrepresentation, highlighting shortcomings in current software development practices. We also explored the potential for automatically classifying these concerns using natural language processing (NLP).
Link: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel7/10173779/10173870/10173905.pdf

Authors: Lauren Olson, Ricarda Anna-Lena Fischer, Florian Kunneman, Emitzá Guzmán
Conference: FAccT ‘25: Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency
Abstract: This study explores how software developers’ demographic backgrounds shape their capacity to perceive and advocate for ethical concerns. Based on a survey of 217 practitioners across diverse roles and regions, the findings show that marginalized groups—such as women, BIPOC, and disabled individuals—report ethical concerns more frequently and feel more empowered to address them. However, organizational environments often fail to support ethical advocacy across the board. The authors call for reforms in software education and development that prioritize diverse perspectives to promote more equitable and responsible computing.
Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.10276

Authors: Lauren Olson
Journal: Proceedings of the IEEE/ACM 3rd International Conference on AI Engineering - Software Engineering for AI
Abstract: This project aims to develop a custom Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) to help developers address ethical issues in AI engineering. The conversational agent will guide compliance with legal frameworks like the EU AI Act and GDPR, and offer alternative ethical perspectives. We outline the need for this tool, describe its design, and demonstrate its use, showing how it can help practitioners create AI solutions that meet legal standards and embrace diverse ethical viewpoints.
Link: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3644815.3644987