Surveillance is a particularly powerful tool that can be used to enabl

Question

Surveillance is a particularly powerful tool that can be used to enable better living, but, at the same time, it can also be used to control the activities of an individual. Surveillance can be of two types- physical or digital. Physical surveillance, which is usually apparent to the people being surveilled, leads to self-censorship and inhibition. Digital surveillance, on the other hand, is covert, which means that if watched long enough, a person may be caught in some kind of immoral or illegal activity. Surveillance in such cases could be used against such a person.

Which of the following statements will be most likely supported by the author of the above passage?

(A) Digital surveillance is more dangerous than physical surveillance.

(B) Lawful surveillance enables society to live a better life.

(C) A person who engaged in one illegal activity in the past cannot be caught without digital surveillance.

(D) The unconstrained use of digital surveillance can act as a means to help defame political opponents.

(E) The intentions of physical surveillance include inducing self-censorship and inhibition.

IanStewart · Accepted Answer

This is a baffling question. The author of the passage presumably would agree that if surveillance was widely used, some politicians would be caught doing illegal things, and those criminal activities would be publicized. Whoever wrote this question presumably thinks that means those politicians would be 'defamed', so I assume that's why D is the 'correct' answer here. But that's not what defamation is. Something isn't defamation if it's true. And that's the situation the question describes: people being caught actually committing crimes. So there's no reason the author would agree with D, which suggests surveillance would help people  lie  about their political opponents. Answer D also doesn't make sense as written -- if it showed up in SC, you'd need to fix it.

No other answer is good either -- we don't know what the author considers dangerous, what the author thinks about lawful and unlawful surveillance, how else the author might think criminals might be caught, and what the author thinks of the intentions behind surveillance, which rules out all the other choices. So the question has no good answer.

thakurarun85 · Answer

Digital surveillance can be used against the person. Only D is similar to this statement.

ARSarkar · Answer

E-gmat question. Please update the source. GMATNinjaTwo  mysterymanrog

Bunuel · Answer

_________________________________
Done. Thank you!

anish777 · Answer

Hi

I don't agree with the answer option provided. As here it is clearly mentioned that surveillance in "such" cases ( when the other person is doing something illegal) can be used against the person.
However we have to assume here the fact that the political opponents are doing something illegal, and hence digital surveillance can be used against them.
Actually I could not find a correct answer choice in all the options mentioned here.

VerbalBot · Answer

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