That this is still happening in 2017 is …. disheartening.
From a notification being sent by the University of California – Santa Cruz:
We are contacting you regarding an incident involving the theft of a laptop that contained your personal information.
What Happened?
On January 13, 2017, two unencrypted laptops were stolen from the home of a University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz) researcher/instructor. The theft was discovered the same day and a police report was filed, but at this time no items have been recovered. Our investigation confirmed that the stolen laptop contained copies of your UC Santa Cruz narrative evaluations. There is no indication that the student information was the intended target.
What Information Was Involved?
These UC Santa Cruz narrative evaluations dating from 2000 to 2004 contained personally identifiable information including your name and Social Security Number (SSN) (which was used as the Student ID number prior to 2005). In addition to SSN, student record information including grades, narrative evaluations and email addresses were on the stolen laptops. The data was not encrypted.