State two reasons why data are compressed.

Data compression is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. There are two primary motivations for this: 1. **To Save Storage Space:** Compressed data occupies less physical space on storage media such as hard drives, solid-state drives, or cloud storage. This allows more data to be stored in the same amount of space, which can also lead to cost savings. 2. **To Increase Transmission Speed:** When data is sent over a network (for example, downloading a file, streaming a video, or loading a webpage), smaller file sizes mean less data needs to be transferred. This results in faster transmission speeds, reduced latency, and lower bandwidth consumption, which is particularly important for users with slow or metered internet connections.