That concern is greater still when the value of a merger is based primarily on how a company thinks they can match up customer details they're buying with customer details they hold themselves.
NHS patient data leaked, police crime data leaked, TalkTalk, British Gas and Marks & Spencer customer details all leaked.
A £130,000 fine in October to Pharmacy 2U Ltd, a company that was selling customer details to postal marketing companies.
Hacker groups like Lulzsec are currently harvesting customer details from companies like Nintendo, Epic and Bethesda for fun.
About 157,000 TalkTalk customer details, including bank account numbers, were stolen in one of the largest cyber hacks in British history.
The former justice secretary, Jack Straw, has blasted a "huge racket" of insurance companies, the police and recovery firms who pass on customer details to personal injury lawyers.
On top of the list of customer details, there's even more confidential data relating to the company - including internal memos, emails, contracts and sales techniques, according to Ars Technica.
Customers whose accounts are with societies which have converted to banks can still trace their accounts through a similar scheme operated by the British Bankers Associationn, which is working with the BSA to ensure customer details are passed to the relevant parties.
Lawyers and solicitors have been banned from receiving referral fees but in road accidents customer details are also sold by garages, car hire firms and even ambulances and the police to personal injury lawyers and claims management firms.
Although it's unlikely that customer details would be vulnerable in this scenario, Sony will naturally want to make sure its online platform is entirely secure before allowing transactions to continue.
