Glossary

What is Provenance?

Updated September 1, 2026

Provenance is the documented origin and chain of custody of a data record: which source produced it, under what conditions, and every hand it passed through on the way to the point of use. In the Data Trust Index, provenance is the heaviest-weighted dimension at 25%, because a value that cannot say where it came from cannot be defended in front of a clinician, a regulator, or a court.

Provenance is stronger than attribution. A CLIA-certified lab result with device attestation and an intact chain of custody carries different weight than the same number retyped into a spreadsheet, even though the values are identical.

SuperTruth's rule for every surface it builds: a figure may not claim a period or a place its source does not cover, and unknown provenance is recorded as unknown, never invented.