If there's a chink in the security, it's just a matter of time ... as such, there's a question that's not really being asked, does x or any third party need all

If there's a chink in the security, it's just a matter of time ... as such, there's a question that's not really being asked, does x or any third party need all the details. Sometimes they do because which ever company had found a cheap service to do all the account processing or some other task. But more often I don't think third parties don't need full access to the master database via web access ... if they do then surely the customer needs to be informed who the company's partner is, and what that company's policy is to guarding any personal data loss/ misuse / retention. From what I see lately (and there has been some massive data loss here in Australia in just the last year) there's a very care free lax attitude with a few shrugs after data is lost - with the hope naughty hackers can be blamed.