Who is the customer or account holder?¶

The customer or account holder is the person or organisation that established or pays for the cloud-service relationship. That identity is important, but it does not automatically identify every user or action within the account.

Personal accounts¶

A personal account may be registered to an email address, telephone number or payment method. The provider may also hold recovery settings, creation details and connected-device information.

Even here, the named holder may share credentials, allow family access, lose control of the account or use false details. Establishing the account holder is one step towards attribution, not the end of it.

Organisational accounts¶

Business and public-sector services are often structured as a tenant or organisation containing many users. The customer may be Dave's employer, an administrator may create Dave's user account, and Dave or another authorised person may perform a particular event.

A provider return naming the organisation may therefore identify who bought the service without showing which employee uploaded a file or changed a record. Internal account, audit and device evidence may be needed for that event.

What customer records can show¶

Depending on the service, useful records may include:

• account or tenant identifiers;
• registration and billing details;
• recovery contacts and verified domains;
• subscription history;
• administrators and account roles;
• support correspondence;
• changes to ownership or security settings.

Interpret each field according to how the provider created it. A display name entered by the user carries different weight from a payment instrument independently processed by another service.

Keep the roles separate¶

Record whether a person is the customer, billing contact, administrator, named user or person associated with a particular event. One person may occupy several roles, but the evidence should establish that rather than assume it.

The next question is who actually used the cloud service at the relevant time.