This article reminded me of when I got an email from my personal google account saying that my password was likely a part of a large breach. Despite the fact that my google account did not contain information as sensitive as the Equifax accounts, I remember feeling uneasy and insecure about how easily my personal info could be stolen. Reading Equifax’s mistake, and how they ignored a patch that could’ve stopped the hack, made me think about how a single missed responsibility can create a snowball effect and affect “up to 143 million Americans or nearly half the population in the United States” (paragraph 1). It also made me more cautious about selecting strong passwords, since these large companies aren’t always as secure as I initially thought.

The Equifax article reminded me of Dan Ariely’s “Are We in Control of Our Own Decisions” TED Talk (which we analyzed in my MIE 330 class), which he tells the story of how small components of design can lead to huge unintended outcomes. In the case of Equifax, a simple missed patch led to the possibility of a large data breach. Both cases involve acknowledge how unexamined systems can lead to ethical issues and dilemmas.

Finally, for my text-to-world connection, I was reminded of how TikTok has faced global pushback from its users over user data potentially being accessed by the Chinese government. Similar to Equifax, it raises concerns about who really controls our personal information, and more importantly what ethical responsibility tech companies have to protect our own information. Both issues have demonstrated that data sensitivity and privacy is one of the most pressing issues in the tech age.

Ask The Money Coach. (2017, September 8). The Equifax hack: What Equifax got right and wrong amid data breach. Ask The Money Coach. https://askthemoneycoach.com/equifax-hack-data-breach/