UCLA data loss

I'm not one of the 800,000 people who had their personal data exposed in that UCLA database that was compromised recently. I was in the UC Berkeley database that was on a laptop which was stolen though. That was a few years ago. It makes you wonder if places can't keep this information secure, is it safe to give it to them in the first place. The social security number in particular seems very risky if it's so easy to get into these databases.