What is the primary purpose of an audit trail in electronic records?

• A. To monitor network latency.
• B. To identify the data owner.
• C. To ensure data integrity through traceability of changes.
• D. To generate usage statistics for marketing.

Answer: (C)

An audit trail records who accessed or changed electronic records, when, and what exactly was altered. Its primary purpose is to protect data integrity by providing a complete, traceable history of all modifications and access. This lets you verify that records haven’t been tampered with, identify unauthorized activity, and reconstruct events for audits or investigations. For example, if a contract is edited, the audit trail shows who made the change, when it happened, and what was changed, enabling accountability and reliable verifiability. The other options don’t fit because monitoring network latency focuses on performance, identifying the data owner is about ownership rather than change history, and generating marketing usage statistics is unrelated to preserving or verifying data integrity.