Two Data Breaches Within a Week: What's Happening?

The author received an email from their tax filing company indicating that a data breach had occurred, exposing their name, date of birth, driver's license, social security number, and nearly all important information. Then, the author received a similar email from Hertz, indicating that all Sensitive Personal Information (SPI) had been breached. The author wonders why these companies are putting customers' sensitive information on the Internet and if they can sue them for leaking their information.