Corporations are a lot like people in many ways, we often talk about them as if they act with a single mind and purpose, and they even have legal rights as an individual. Also, like many humans in the world, some corporations seem to lack certain social graces and may deal with other people in awkward ways.

One company who we might describe as “socially special” is education industry titan Benesse. After a major security breach earlier this year nearly 30 million people’s personal information was leaked and sold. To compensate the victims, Benesse is offering a whole 500 yen (US$4.60). That alone might be interpreted as a slap in the face by some people, but it gets worse.

■ The good, the bad, and the Benesse

To be fair to Benesse, this data leak was caused by a single loose-cannon working with the company who allegedly stole the information and sold it to cover gambling expenses. Granted you can argue that they should have ran a tighter ship, but it’s impossible to put any guarantees on human nature. It could happen to any organization.

In that way, the 500 yen apology doesn’t seem as bad. With tens of millions of people affected, those cash vouchers would add up to an almost 15 billion yen ($138M) “I’m sorry.” While on their side, that has got to feel like a painfully large act of contrition, it’s a pittance in the eyes of each person receiving their coin. Nevertheless, the millions of people upon hearing the news likely sighed and thought “fine, just give me the 500 yen.”

■ “My letter of apology arrived…”

Benesse’s apology, although superficially insulting, does seem to have good intentions behind it. However, when the letters of apology started going out, victims were in for a second surprise.

▼ “My letter of apology arrived from Benesse. I have to choose between a 500 yen cash voucher or a donation to the Benesee Children’s Fund.”

Surprisingly, in response to this public relations crises, Benesse established the Benesse Children’s Fund. I say “surprisingly” because it’s hard to find a decent correlation between a children’s charity and a personal information security breach. They earmarked “a part of a 20 billion yen ($184M) fund” to do so as outlined in their “Report and Response Regarding Leakage of Customer’s Personal Information.” The fund is described as follows:

Did they mention that children are our future? Aside from teaching them well and letting them lead the way, I suspect showing them all the beauty they possess inside is also on the agenda. If that objective seems a little vague to you as well, they also provide some examples.

For those unfamiliar with the Benesse, among many services, they offer correspondence education courses to students in need of extra study. This means that pretty much all of those objectives above are more or less what the company does anyway – well, except for the “protection of personal information” part at least.

▼ “Donate to the Benesse Children’s Charity. That’s hysterical!”

https://twitter.com/mega_lover_69/status/512256754067845121

■ What would you choose?

So now here are millions of customers who, after slogging through offers of discount Viagra from India because their email addresses were sold off, are now staring at their two check boxes. They can either take the 500 yen, feel like a jerk for refusing to give to charity, and buy a decent parfait for their troubles or they can give it back to Benesse so it can continue doing what it’s supposed to do anyway.

▼ “They leaked information and now I’m somehow being forced into donating to a charity. What the hell is this? When people refuse a donation they feel a sense of guilt. (Not me of course)”

https://twitter.com/mokos/status/512168028906061824

Again this whole mess started as the wrong-doing of a lone individual and not really any malicious act by the company as a whole. That combined with the fact that this apology is so ludicrous makes it hard to be angry with them.

It’s like complaining to a cook about your fingernail-encrusted cheeseburger only to hear him say “I could give you your money back, or you could let me keep it so I can put it towards being a better cook.” You’d probably be so amazed he had the balls to suggest such a thing that, you’d probably just laugh and scruff his hair saying “ohhh you rascal.”

So on behalf of the estimated 28,950,000 who had their personal details leaked, I’d like to say “ohhh Benesse, you rascal” and give your corporate hair a big old scruffing.

Now get back to work on your security!

Source: Hachima Kiko, Yahoo! Japan News (Japanese), Benesse Report and Response Regarding Leakage of Customers’ Personal Information (English)
Top Image: Twitter, Wikipedia – Misogi