Equifax is a credit bureau that analyzes the credits of individuals and sells their analysis to creditors, usually banks, credit card companies and mortgage lenders, in order for them to decide whether or not the individual is able to pay back the loan. In lieu of creditors, individuals can also use this program to gather information about their own credit standing.

In a recent article from Cable News Network [1], it revealed that in early July someone had hacked into Equifax’s system. This lead to the robbery of personal details, such as drivers license and social insurance numbers, of millions of customers. However, Equifax has only just revealed the hacking situation in early September of this year. So, for two months the customers were unaware that their personal information could have been stolen. Though for Equifax, they may have wanted to wait till they had the situation under control before alarming the customers, it is unethical to leave the customers in the dark when their valuable information is at risk. It is the company’s, Equifax, responsibility to inform the customers of any problems that may concern their accounts. In addition, by not revealing the breach in data as soon as possible, the customers and prospective customers view of the company may deteriorate. Thus, causing the business to lose customers and revenue. For example, most people are looking for a credit bureau that they can trust and would avoid Equifax because of the unethical way they revealed the infiltration of their database.

 

Image Sourced: http://www.wndu.com/content/news/Check-if-youre-affected-by-Equifax-data-breach-up-to-143M-compromised-443250753.html

Also, the customers of Equifax in Canada and Britain are unable to know whether their account have been affected; whereas, the customers in the United States are able to access their own account and have insight of the hacking in regards of their own accounts. Even though this is an American Company and a majority of their customers may be American, it is not morally sound to group their customers and prioritize them differently. By doing so, Equifax is in danger of being viewed as bias towards their customers. This could potentially cause Equifax to lose future international clients, as they view the company to put their domestic clienteles, Americans, as their first priority. However, the reality is that Equifax, or any company, should allocate the same amount of resource and time to all their clients. The reason for this is because every one of their clients have spent the same amount of money and expect the same service no matter where they are. Needless to say, the business ethics in Equifax needs to be reformed and rebuilt for international and domestic customers to trust and use this company.

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Sources

[1] http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/12/news/equifax-hack-canada-uk/index.html?iid=SF_LN