def METHOD_NAME(pod_identity_exceptions):
    if not pod_identity_exceptions:
        return
    for exc in pod_identity_exceptions:
        if exc.pod_labels is None:
            # in previous version, we accidentally allowed user to specify empty pod labels,
            # which will be converted to `None` in response. This behavior will break the extension
            # when using 2021-10-01 version. As a workaround, we always back fill the empty dict value
            # before sending to the server side.
            exc.pod_labels = dict()