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Data privacy and trust in cloud computing: building trust in the cloud through assurance and accountability
Lynn T., Mooney J., van der Werff L., Fox G., Palgrave Macmillan, Switzerland, 2021. 170 pp. Type: Book (978-3-030546-59-5)
Date Reviewed: Mar 18 2022

The book is a compilation of chapters that investigates issues related to cloud (computing) service providers (CSPs), specifically customer trust and service-level requirements (SLRs). The majority of the chapters (except the last one) analyze the behavior of CSPs from the viewpoint of legal regulation, ethical approaches, information privacy, and data protection. The last chapter gives an overview of the research on trustworthy cloud computing. The book looks at cloud computing from a social sciences and law perspective, which is useful for computing professionals who are involved in cloud computing as a systems analyst, designer, developer, tester, or any kind of implementer.

Chapter 1 summarizes the approaches related to the notion of trust based on an extensive literature overview. The two relevant concepts related to trust are the ability and the integrity of the service provider. These two concepts can be mapped onto reliability and consistency of service from the viewpoint of technology. The chapter contains a survey of cloud concepts, cloud services, and deployment models, as well as the most recent developments in connection with the Internet of Things (IoT).

Chapter 2 concentrates on the contractual problems that arise in customer and service provider relationships from a legal point of view. One key point is that individual consumers do not make rational decisions when accepting a click-wrap contract.

Chapter 3 discusses international legal environments, especially in the US and the European Union (EU). It investigates the discrepancies and collisions of legal approaches. Problems such as borderless computing, digital sovereignty, and bypassing the jurisdictional boundaries are discussed.

Chapter 4 dives into topics of information privacy, taking into account the literature on information systems. A taxonomy of important privacy and security characteristics based on individual concerns is discussed. The chapter states that CSPs should deal with three properties of cloud services from the viewpoint of customers: control, awareness, and trust. The author proposes that research should move in the direction of investigating the privacy perceptions of customers, thereby the concluding section contains an overarching table of the areas where the research can be pursued.

Chapter 5 covers the social control theories and procedural justice as a theoretical framework. Based on the power-responsibility equilibrium model, the author claims that CSPs should rebalance the control equilibrium, that is, some control and data should be given back to the customers. The author defines four categories related to privacy for CSPs to consider: compliers, integrators, citizens, and warriors. The author hopes that this framework, together with future research, will assist in the evolution of cloud services and CSPs.

Chapter 6 deals with ethics based on various philosophical approaches. The authors apply this toolset of ethics to cloud computing, especially to issues of data ownership. One solution to establishing trust between partners could be a two-part code of ethics that contains sections about principles and guidance. It is a necessary but not sufficient precondition to change the behavior of organizations. Moreover, cloud computing may affect environmental issues, perhaps positively but there is also the possibility of negative impacts. Ethics should be a driving force for CSPs.

The concluding chapter (7) approaches the problems of cloud computing from the viewpoint of computer science and information technology (IT). The focus is on the nonfunctional quality of services through cloud computing (see ISO 9126) and the measurability of trustworthiness. The following characteristics are considered: security, privacy, reliability (availability), and business integrity; other contributions touch on psychological viewpoints not discussed here, whereas this chapter looks for an exact measurement of services.

The book is useful from many points of view--business, system, and technology administration--since cloud computing is one possible answer to many current challenges if trust, privacy, and security issues can be kept in check. The outlined legal, ethical, and business process management issues can be used by business, system analysts, designers, architects, and even computer scientists and software engineers, for example, when a reorganization of business and IT processes takes place or when management contemplates various hybrid, on-premise, and public cloud computing solutions.

Reviewer:  Bálint Molnár Review #: CR147419
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