Which statement about metadata is correct?

• A. Metadata is data about data quality metrics.
• B. Metadata is data about data.
• C. Metadata is data about data's encryption.
• D. Metadata is data about the hardware.

Answer: (B)

Metadata is information that describes other data, helping you understand, manage, or locate that data. For a document, metadata includes who created it, when it was created, file type, and size. For a dataset, metadata might include the data dictionary, column types, data source, and update frequency. This concept—data about data—is the natural fit for what metadata is and why it’s used.

The other statements miss the broader idea. Describing data quality metrics focuses on a specific aspect of data assessment rather than defining metadata itself. Describing data’s encryption talks about security details, which can be part of metadata but doesn’t define metadata overall. Describing data about hardware describes information about the hardware, not about the data itself.