[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-82151-en":3,"doc-seo-82151-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},82151,1099514067438,"River Wang","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/100002539ee87300030?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1780474512215547542",8,"Research & Report","Privacy Detective: A Narrative Game that Cultivates Student Developers’ Privacy Awareness by Harnessing Legal Documents","Developers’ decisions about what data systems collect, how it is used and shared, and which defaults govern users directly determine real privacy outcomes, yet problematic privacy design choices are often made without understanding their consequences. Privacy Detective is a narrative investigation game that trains privacy awareness by using real legal documents, requiring players to locate evidence and assemble it into privacy violation reports with curated templates. A between-subjects study with student developers shows more true violations, fewer non-issues, and stronger justifications than a baseline using raw FTC documents.","Privacy Detective: A Narrative Game that Cultivates Student Developers’ Privacy  \nAwareness by Harnessing Legal Documents  \nShao-Yu Chu†, Jennifer Forsyth†, Xu Wang§ , Haojian Jin†,  \n† University of California, San Diego  \n{shaoyuchu, jcforsyth, [haojian](haojian}@ucsd.edu)[}](haojian}@ucsd.edu)[@ucsd.edu](haojian}@ucsd.edu)  \n§ University of Michigan  \n{[xwanghci](xwanghci}@umich.edu)[}](xwanghci}@umich.edu)[@umich.edu](xwanghci}@umich.edu)  \narXiv :2607 .09022v1 [ cs .HC] 10 Jul 2026  \nAbstract—Developers’ choices about what data a system collects, how it is used and shared, and what defaults govern user choices directly shape users’ privacy experiences. Yet, developers often make problematic privacy-related design decisions without realizing the potential consequences. We introduce Privacy Detective, a narrative investigation game that leverages real-world legal documents to train developers’ privacy awareness. In the game, players search for privacy violation evidence derived from legal documents and organize this evidences into privacy violation reports using curated templates. We evaluated Privacy Detective in a between-subjects study with student developers, comparing it against a baseline in which participants read raw FTC legal documents. Participants in the game condition identified more true violations than the baseline group, flagged fewer non-issues, and provided more complete justifications for the violations they reported.  \n1. Introduction  \nSoftware developers play a central role in shaping how systems handle users’ personal data [1] . They decide which libraries, tools, and platforms to use, what data to collect, and how to present information to users. These choices directly impact user privacy [1], [2], [3]: how personal data flows, and whether users retain agency over their own information and choices. However, developers frequently make problematic privacy-related design decisions without realizing the potential consequences [4] . Even when privacy experts are available on a team, low privacy awareness means developers may not recognize privacy-relevant issues in the first place, preventing them from flagging or escalating concerns to experts [5], [6] .  \nIn response, many universities have introduced privacyfocused courses into computer science curricula [7], [8], [9],[10] . Companies likewise emphasize privacy in onboarding and refresher trainings for engineers [11] . These trainings typically rely on two instructional formats: (1) abstract, concept-based quizzes (e.g.,“Which of the following best describes personally identifiable information?”) and (2) simple scenario-based multiple-choice questions (e.g., “What action would you take in situation X?”) [12], [13] . However, a major concern is that these materials often remain  \ndisconnected from real-world development practices [3] . Recent studies found that developers more commonly cultivate sensitivity to real-world privacy problems informally–by reading online resources such as technical articles, online forums, news coverage, general media, and blogs about real incidents [3], [11] . Since privacy habits and awareness can begin to form early in education, student developers represent one critical target population for more effective privacy training.  \nIn this paper, we present Privacy Detective, a narrative investigation game that leverages real-world legal documents to actively train student developers’ privacy awareness. Privacy Detective aims to sharpen their sensitivity to potential privacy risks when they examine real-world data practices. If developers can recognize when “something feels off,” they may escalate the issue to privacy experts, who can help navigate the nuances of implementation [11] .  \nRecognizing when “something feels off” is not easy. First, modern software involves countless interconnected design decisions, so developers must filter out privacyirrelevant details to focus their attention on the ones that matter. This contras","cbCaiiUa0un5TctR","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiiUa0un5TctR","pdf",1530319,1,19,"English","en",105,"# Introduction\n## Background and Motivation\n## Privacy Detective Overview\n## Challenges in Recognizing Privacy Issues","[{\"question\":\"What problem does Privacy Detective address for student developers?\",\"answer\":\"It addresses low privacy awareness that leads developers to miss privacy-relevant issues and fail to escalate concerns to privacy experts. The game is designed to train developers to better recognize potential privacy risks in realistic data practices.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the Privacy Detective game work?\",\"answer\":\"Players investigate detailed data-practice descriptions, search for privacy-violation evidence grounded in legal documents, and then organize that evidence into privacy violation reports using curated templates.\"},{\"question\":\"What were the results compared with reading raw FTC legal documents?\",\"answer\":\"In the study, game participants identified more true violations, flagged fewer non-issues, and provided more complete justifications for the violations they reported.\"}]",1784178473,48,{"code":4,"msg":30,"data":31},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":32,"title":13,"keywords":33,"description":14,"schema_data":34,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":27},"privacy-detective-a-narrative-game-that-cultivates-student-developers-privacy-awareness-by-harnessing-legal-documents","",{"@graph":35,"@context":85},[36,53,68],{"@type":37,"itemListElement":38},"BreadcrumbList",[39,43,47,50],{"item":40,"name":41,"@type":42,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":44,"name":45,"@type":42,"position":46},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":42,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":42,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/privacy-detective-a-narrative-game-that-cultivates-student-developers-privacy-awareness-by-harnessing-legal-documents/82151/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":40,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-07-17","2026-07-16",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"What problem does Privacy Detective address for student developers?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"It addresses low privacy awareness that leads developers to miss privacy-relevant issues and fail to escalate concerns to privacy experts. The game is designed to train developers to better recognize potential privacy risks in realistic data practices.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"How does the Privacy Detective game work?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"Players investigate detailed data-practice descriptions, search for privacy-violation evidence grounded in legal documents, and then organize that evidence into privacy violation reports using curated templates.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"What were the results compared with reading raw FTC legal documents?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"In the study, game participants identified more true violations, flagged fewer non-issues, and provided more complete justifications for the violations they reported.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,115,120,123,128,131,135],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":121,"slug":122},30,"research-report",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":127},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":126,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":126,"slug":130},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":132,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":133,"show_sort_weight":132,"slug":134},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":45,"category_name":136,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":137},"General","general"]