Prompt: Read this sample breach letter, “SAMPLE DATA BREACH NOTIFICATION,” and describe how two different economics theories and two different social sciences theories relate to the letter.
This notification letter relates to the Laissez-faire economic theory’s idea that the government should only interfere with economics to protect the rights of citizens. Laws in all US states require websites that suffer data breaches to notify potentially affected customers within a certain period from the breach (Federal Trade Commission, 2021). Even though these notifications are unlikely to benefit many companies financially and may even cost significant resources, the government still requires them to protect the privacy rights of affected customers. Additionally, this notification letter relates to Marxian economic theory. While it may not be in the traditional way that many view Marxian economic theory, that is, large corporations or wealthy individuals exploiting poorer individuals, data breaches can be viewed as cybercriminals with technical skill and malicious intentions as being in a more powerful position than those whose information they steal from an attacked website or database. Using one’s technical know-how in such a way would be taking advantage of non-technical users who utilize a platform without much control to protect their data stored on the website’s servers.
In addition to economic theories, the notification letter involves several social science concepts. For example, the letter clearly outlines which types of information were stolen and provides suggestions on how users can protect themselves from identity theft. Doing this utilizes the idea of victim precipitation by acknowledging that the victims of a data breach can influence the outcomes of their data being stolen by choosing to engage or not engage in specific actions. If victims are made aware of the information that was affected by the breach and decide not to take any proactive measures to change that data, they are increasing their chances of having their identity and money stolen. Furthermore, exposure theory can be applied to data breaches like the one given in the sample. The more a person uses a variety of paid online platforms, the farther their financial and other personal information will be spread on the internet. This will result in more opportunities for exposing data and a greater likelihood of information being stored in an insecure online location.
Reference
Federal Trade Commission. (2021, February). Data breach response: A guide for business. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/data-breach-response-guide-business