Week 12 – Journal Entry 12

The data breach in the letter shows how economic and social theories come into play. From an economic perspective, market failure happens when the company’s platform provider didn’t properly secure customer data, which ended up hurting customers. This is a classic example of a problem where the company didn’t take responsibility for the full costs of their actions. Asymmetric information is also relevant since the company knew about the breach but didn’t inform customers right away, leaving them in the dark. On the social side, social trust is shaken because people lose confidence in online shopping when their personal data isn’t safe. Lastly, conflict theory shows how the company’s decision to save money by outsourcing put consumers at risk, highlighting the power imbalance between businesses and customers.