Which concept describes that electronic data may not be readable once moved from its environment?

• A. Environment-dependence and obsolescence
• B. Data portability
• C. Format independence
• D. Digital permanence

Answer: (A)

Readability of electronic data can depend on the environment in which it’s used. When data is moved from its original environment—where a specific software, hardware, codecs, and system support exist—it may become unreadable if those dependencies aren’t available or have become obsolete. This idea is environmental dependence and obsolescence: the data lives in a context that must be present for it to be interpreted, and if that context fades, so can access to the information.

Data portability would mean you can move data between systems without loss of access; format independence would imply the data remains readable across different formats; digital permanence concerns long-term preservation. None of these capture the risk that a change in environment can render data unreadable, which is why environmental dependence and obsolescence is the best description.