Data compression maintains data integrity?

• A. Lossy compression
• B. Lossless compression
• C. Speech encoding compression
• D. Lossy video compression

Answer: (B)

The essential idea here is that data integrity in compression is preserved only by lossless compression. In lossless methods, data is encoded so that every bit can be recovered exactly when you decompress; no information is lost in the process. This means you can store or transmit data and get back the original file without any change. In contrast, lossy compression cuts away some information to achieve higher compression ratios, so the decompressed data is not identical to the original and fidelity is sacrificed. Speech encoding and most video compression schemes are typically lossy because they prioritize smaller size or smoother perceptual quality over perfect fidelity. Therefore, the method that maintains data integrity is lossless compression.