Consumption of online services and cloud computing offerings is on the rise, largely due to compelling advantages over traditional local applications. From a user perspective, these include zero-maintenance of software, the always-on nature of such services, mashups of different applications and the networking effect with other users. Associated disadvantages are known, but effective means and tools to limit their effect are not yet well-established and not yet generally available to service users. We propose (1) a user-centric model of cloud elements beyond the conventional