Crime and Punishment in the Cloud - Accountability, Transparency, and Privacy

The goal of this work is to reason on the complexity of the relationship between three non-functional requirements in cloud computing; privacy, accountability, and transparency. We provide insights on the complexity of this relationship from the perspectives of end-users, cloud service providers, and third parties, such as auditors. We shed light on the real and perceived conflicts between privacy, transparency, and accountability, using a formal definition of transparency and an analysis on how well a privacy-preserving transparency-enhancing tool may assist in achieving accountability. Furthermore, we highlight the importance of the privacy impact assessment process for the realisation of both transparency and accountability.