Ravi Mahankali (University of Bristol), Jo Hallett (University of Bristol)
What usability issues do developers using Differential Privacy libraries face? We analyzed 2,021 GitHub issues from 5 major Differential Privacy libraries, identifying the usability problems like API confusion, poor error feedback, and documentation gaps. Unlike other privacy-preserving technologies, such as cryptographic libraries, that struggle with installation issues, Differential Privacy libraries face unique challenges. The main contributions of this work include: comprehensive taxonomy of 14 distinct usability issue categories identified through a systematic analysis of real-world developer experiences; empirical evidence that Differential Privacy libraries face different usability challenges compared to other privacy libraries, with API misuse dominating at 31.5% of all issues; and library-specific usability profiles revealing that specialized libraries (IBM DP and Google DP) show distinct patterns from general-purpose frameworks (PySyft), indicating the need for specialized library usability design approaches.