Trustworthiness signalling

One of the central arguments of our original paper was that the language we use to describe data-sharing initiatives matters, because the way things like TREs are presented and framed makes a difference to what people can, and should, expect from them. However, there is a more basic and obvious problem with referring to these institutions as ‘trusted’: it begs the question about whether these institutions are, in fact, trusted. We cannot know in advance of these initiatives being implemented, established, and appropriate assessments completed, whether they are actually trusted. Further questions abound: whom might TREs eventually be trusted by? If some people end up trusting them, but not others, is it appropriate to call them ‘trusted’? At best, this is simply a case of wishful thinking (and a more accurate name would be ‘hopefully-TREs’). More problematically, this may be an instance of ‘trustworthiness-signalling’: an attempt to convince others to trust, without meeting the requirements for genuine trustworthiness. By calling TREs ‘trusted’, the implication seems to be that placing our trust in them is perfectly fine: they are the kinds of things that are trusted by others and can safely be trusted by us. But not only does simply calling something ‘trusted’ …