Data Accountability in Socio-Technical Systems

Data-accountability encompasses responsibility for data and the traceability of data flows. This is becoming increasingly important for Socio-Technical Systems (STS). Determining root causes for unwanted events after their occurrence is often not possible, e.g. because of missing logs. A better traceability of root causes can be supported by the integration of accountability mechanisms at design time. We contribute a structured method for designing an accountability architecture for STS at design time. Therefore, we propose the elicitation of accountability goals to answer why an unwanted event happened and who is responsible for it. We also identify four different interaction types in STS. Additionally, we derive accountability graphs from a generic accountability model for STS that serve as a baseline for designing accountability mechanisms for all relevant entities in an STS. The resulting architecture is adjusted to legal requirements, regulations and contracts. We demonstrate the applicability of our approach with an eHealth case study.