Implementations of the present disclosure include methods for providing transparency in streaming event data. In some implementations, methods include receiving a plurality of events, each event comprising event data and being generated by an event source in response to a real-world activity, processing the plurality of events using one or more complex event processing (CEP) rules to generate a complex event, in response to generating the complex event, generating at least one lineage event that comprises lineage information, the lineage information comprising information corresponding to one or more source events, each of the one or more source events contributing to the complex event, and storing the lineage event and the one or more source events in an event archive provided as a computer-readable storage medium.