Enhancing Privacy-Preserving Software Development from a Developers' Perspective: A Survey

Privacy preservation is a fundamental requirement in contemporary software development, driven by regulatory frameworks such as the GDPR and CCPA. Although numerous tools, guidelines, methods, methodologies, and frameworks have been proposed to support privacy-preserving software development, most lack rigorous empirical validation and remain insufficiently evaluated across industrial contexts. Existing secondary studies provide broad overviews but do not systematically analyse empirically validated solutions or their limitations. To address this gap, we conduct a Systematic Literature Review following Kitchenham and Charters’ guidelines, analysing 32 primary studies. We classify empirically evaluated solutions into six categories and synthesize their reported limitations, providing actionable insights for researchers and practitioners seeking effective, evidence-based privacy-preserving development support.