Does it matter? I really feel like I am missing some key knowledge about why people care that their credit card number might be stolen—especially when compared to much more immutable private information like your email address, home address, or phone number.

Cardholder agreements for credit cards typically say that you aren’t liable for any fraudulent charges so long as you report them within a couple of billing cycles. I once had my credit card number stolen, called the bank to report it, and they reversed the charge and sent me a new card via FedEx Express. The whole process took less than ten minutes.

What don’t I know? Is it just that when companies emphasise “no credit card information was stolen” in their data breach announcements that this gives a false impression that this data is more important to keep secret, or what?