The Equifax breach harmed all individuals who are subject to using credit- that is, anyone who has a credit card, uses a cell phone, or requires financing for whatever reason. Outside of the obvious lack of protection for the users, the Equifax breach put everyone at risk from their lack of action following the breach. Equifax did not reach out to those affected or offer any type of protection to the general public. Equifax, instead, used the breach as leverage to further gain profit off the individuals, affected or not, by offering another “protection” service. Equifax had an innate responsibility to the public given the nature of sensitive information about individuals which it harbored and potentially dispersed, unbeknownst to that individual. In this Case Analysis, I will argue that contractarianism shows us that the Equifax breach harmed society by not taking appropriate action following the breach, and that this was morally bad.

            In the Friedman article, the lack of social responsibility for a corporation is the central concept. Friedman does not believe that a corporation has any social responsibility, as the corporation’s sole function is making money. Friedman states “Only people can have responsibilities. A corporation is an artificial person and in this sense may have artificial responsibilities, but “business” as a whole cannot be said to have responsibilities…”. Friedman backs up his argument stating “… the corporate executive would be spending someone else’s money for general social interest… his actions in accord with his “social responsibility” reduce returns to stockholders, he is spending their money”. This being said provides that a corporation is free from any social construct to provide for the population as a whole. Corporations must do what is best for their investors and the corporation at all costs. If this is not the course of action followed by the corporation, Friedman equates this use of money to taxation and use of that money without input from any investors, or in this case, “taxpayers”. Equifax may have been under this same impression. When the breach of their information occurred, they used it to their own devices by offering another service to garnish money from individuals to “fix” the issue at hand, at least short term. 

            In contractarianism, morality of social structures in society is the overarching theme, therefore the morality of corporations in society must be considered. The contractarian viewpoint of a corporation would still take into consideration what is owed to society from the corporation. These actions may include big issues, such as dumping toxic waste, or smaller issues, such as paying workers a livable wage or providing training to allow for greater employment. When providing a service, one must do so with some expense to themselves, and relevant investors if any, in order to promote the greater good in society. Having a positive input into society will allow society to positively affect the corporation, and, despite the input into society, the corporation would still have the ability to succeed financially. The Equifax breach shows a disregard for the safety and privacy of information collected from individuals, which is owed to the consumer from the provider of this service. Equifax had the opportunity to gain trust, and perhaps more financial backing, from society given an appropriate response, but, instead, took advantage of those affected to attempt to gain financially. 

            Corporations do, in fact, owe society social responsibility per contractarianism. Friedman’s assertion that regarding social responsibility as a corporation is solely the viewpoint of a socialist society is incorrect. In order to have a functioning society, there will always be give and take. This can be in the form of money, time or otherwise. After the Equifax breach was made known, freezing of those affected accounts should have happened immediately along with notification to the individual associated with said accounts. Equifax should have also offered further protection to society as a whole to protect them from further breaches. The breach was a fail on Equifax’s behalf, so the corporation should have financially taken the blow as well.

            In the Anshen article, a corporation’s new role in society is the central concept. This “basic redefinition of the role and responsibility of private enterprise” is one where the corporation has a responsibility to society to do what is best, not only monetarily for the corporation but also for the greater good in society overall. Jean Jacques Rousseau is referenced in the article making the idea of social responsibility more concrete by stating “each member of society entered into an implicit contract with every other member, a contract that defined the norms of human behavior and the terms of exchanges and trade-offs among individuals and organizations, public and private.” These new definitions provided advantages from the national well-being. Social progress is measured equally with economic progress, and “it will no longer be acceptable for corporations to manage their affairs solely in terms of… costs of doing business, while thrusting external costs on the public.” Equifax went against the national well-being by charging for protection in light of their breach. The cost of their breach was put upon the shoulders of society to bear the burden.

            Anshen’s view can be seen as supportive of the contractarianism viewpoint. Anshen clearly supported businesses doing their part to improve society. “… private management… must participate actively in the redesign of the social contract.” Anshen set a clear path for organizations to follow in order to uphold the greater good. “Only by recognition of the total problem in all its complexity, open acceptance of responsibility for its creation and open expression of a desire to bring business knowledge and technical competence to bear on the analysis of complementary and alternative solutions… will there be a reasonable chance of developing solutions that are technically effective, economically efficient and socially equitable.” This is necessary in a positively functioning society because without give and take, society has nothing to give to businesses who, then, cannot gain. Businesses are held accountable for their possibly negative impact on the environment as well as other facets of the individual’s life and expected to give an equal positive back to society. Equifax changing their viewpoint and offering protection to individuals in light of their breach would be supported by contractarianism. Equifax provides a positive service to people in that credit reporting is easily accessible, but without offering protection there is no trust in the corporation. A lack of trust will set up the business for failure, as informed consumers will not want to make use of the service.

            Corporations should follow the lead of the thoughts of Anshen presented in this article. Like Equifax, corporations should review their output and provide inputs into society in a way to promote equality. Corporations cannot be expected to cause each person to make the same amount of money or have all the same things, but they can give training to those who are unemployed, reduce and properly dispose of toxic waste, and pay a livable wage to those employed. Corporations may, at times, have to accept a loss in order to promote the greater good. Anshen pointed out “…early responses are visible in scattered corporate efforts to do something about training and jobs for the hard-core unemployed, financing for ghetto construction and manufacturing, management counseling for minority businessmen… most of these responses are not economic ventures of the kind traditionally associated with commitments of private capital.” 

            Although corporations are created in the pursuit of making money, they do owe something to society. Without society, the corporation could not exist, nor would there be money to accrue without the support of society. Equifax, in light of their breach, undoubtably lost trust and support of society. The corporation did not reach out to those affected in a timely manner, or at all. Then, the corporation attempted to charge customers for the lack of security, which they owed to the customers initially, and the only way to find out if you were affected was to enter your information into this potentially unsafe database, once again. Equifax was trusted with sensitive and private information, and they did not hold that information to the security standard which was expected of them by society. Equifax failed to uphold the contractarian standard and was ethically immoral with regards to society as a whole.