Embedding Ethics in Coding: A Software Engineering Approach to Data Security and Privacy in Event Management Apps

Although significant efforts have been invested in achieving General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) compliance through legal and ethical channels as part of a new era in business, there has been limited exploration of integrating such compliance into software requirements, design, and development processes. Recent studies have begun to explore software engineering methodologies to capture and implement GDPR regulations. This research is focussed on the integration of GDPR requirements into an Event Management Application. We provide contributions to include establishing the concept, presenting a design pattern, and showcasing through a case study. This is demonstrated by pseudocode and sample code from our implementation, thus serving as valuable best practices for application designers and developers in enabling the creation of GDPR compliant applications. Furthermore, this approach not only facilitates GDPR compliance but also instils a strong ethical commitment to data security and user privacy within application development in meeting these ongoing challenges.