While there are a lot of different scenarios each with varying degrees of risk - both the hacking and the sloppy employee are examples of one-offs. Systemic problems are wholesale "legal" distribution of that data - take a look at pipl.com as an example of what you can get for free. Now consider what someone with a grudge whose willing to put up a few bucks can get a hold of. Or what any number of amoral profit-seeking corporations may decide to do with all of that extremely detailed personal data people have volunteered about themselves via surveys.
PS - I'm not in pipl - not because I've asked to have my data removed, just because I take care to avoid handing it out to people who don't really need it.