What were you doing before Christmas or Hanukah of 2013? Shopping at Target perhaps? Chances are you were shopping for presents; if you were shopping in a Target store, chances are strong your credit card was hacked. Target executives knew about 
the data breach but said nothing. Ethical? Well…the bigger ethics question related to the Target Data Breach is where from here?
As you might remember, Target felt so badly about the breach they waited weeks before they told you your credit card might have been hacked. In a rush of corporate conscience, Target has decided to offer the 40 million customers who were inconvenienced or suffered monetary losses up to $10,000 each. It is part of a $10 million settlement to settle a class action lawsuit.
“Wow!” you might say, “What a responsible organization.”
Not so fast!
In an article by Charles Riley and Jose Pagliery for CNN Money (March 19, 2015) entitled: “Target Offers to Pay hack victims $10 million,” we are told:
“Don’t get excited. It’s unlikely anyone will actually receive $10,000…Target customers who can prove they were damaged by the data breach will get the first shot at the $10 million…victims will be reimbursed for unauthorized credit card charges, bank fees or costs related to replacement IDs — so long as they are documented. The more likely scenario? Target will reimburse victims for ‘lost time,’ as it says in court papers…”
What this means in real terms: for those of you who had gone on with your lives after getting hacked, should you decide to pursue a legal route to get back your precious time and money, you might wind up with…well, let me illustrate. If you kept all of your receipts dating to the Target hack of 2013 (I am sure you have!), you could wind up with a few bucks. If you tossed out the old receipts with the trash after deciding just to move on with your life, you could literally be looking at a few pennies.
The article also tells us: “The settlement, however, must still be approved by a federal judge.”
Here is the kicker though:
“The attorneys who sued Target come out best in this deal, though. The proposed settlement would pay them a separate $6.75 million in fees.”
That is correct, my Target Hackee’s. You might wind up with twenty-five cents, but the crack legal team that is bringing the suit on your behalf, might waltz away with nearly $7 million.
Where ethics begins
Good ethics does not start now. The $10 million dollars they offer is play money; the kind of money that we used to use to buy Boardwalk Avenue and the Reading RR.
The data breach affected 40 million in terms of their financial information and a possible total of 70 million whose addresses, telephone numbers and the like were stolen.
As I mentioned, the executives at Target knew about fairly early on in the process. They didn’t want to let the millions know because it was, after all, Holiday Season. Target did offer a free year of making sure your credit hadn’t been affected and some kind of ID theft protection. Those gestures were well after the fact.
Ethics should have begun at the very top; instead, it looks as though it is working its way up from the bottom. It is saying, “Too bad you got hacked, dear customer, now prove it.”
I realize fraud works both ways. There could be a tiny percentage who could take advantage, but it would be difficult to do.
In reality, we know that if an item is fraudulently charged to our accounts, banks will typically credit us for the full amount. We also know that anyone can monitor their own credit scores very easily and virtually anyone with a computer can track their accounts to ensure no one is fraudulently using our accounts. Our weekly or even monthly vigilance of our own accounts is the very safest protection.
What I am saying is that Target offered consumers very, very little here.
Good ethics could have started at the first sign of the breach, not months and years down the road. It could have been a public acknowledgement as it was taking place. I understand why it didn’t happen; the stock market was a more important motivator than the customer.
The company could have offered cash discounts on everything in the store until the breach was declared fixed. The company could have offered coupons, aggressive sales, buy-one, get-one discounts and any number of things. They didn’t.
Target won their ethical war and they are hoping their customers haven’t noticed.