Some people feel extremely violated.

There is absolutely no limit to the ingenuity of the people doing these schemes.

A retailer lost control of their data and that info has gotten out there.

All the information someone would need to steal your identity. Sometimes, being organized is a little too organized.

Either a small business that doesn't realize what they should be doing or it's an entity that's just starting up and they haven't considered all the ramifications of what they're doing.

They don't need it. Most of the time they ask for it because at one point in time, it was a common thing to do. Back in the '70s, Social Security numbers were often used as ID numbers. Now, it's not as common. Anyone who gets access to that number can rip off your identity.