Steam does ask suddenly for ID, if I want to buy a game?

[Blitzwing]

Its very odd, just yesterday I could simply buy games, now it does ask for ID?
like where you life and phone number

Update 27.01.2020
Here is the proof, what steam does request now.
https://imgur.com/a/BPV7ZG8

Some people do "guess" its due to new laws in USA, but I do life in Germany.

There is still no official statement from Steam.

[RiO]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

Now your example of 1 out of 900k almost a million, either way is a very low chance, should check the odds of getting hit by lighting, claim 1 out of 1mil, when you stop to think, it's not common, and very unlikely. If someone told you if you have a chance being killed my lighting would you avoid going outside for the rest of your life?

The odds of being struck by lightning in any one given year are roughly 1:700K actually.
But if you extend that to being struck by lighting at any one point during your natural lifetime, it becomes roughly 1:3000.

[Blitzwing]

Honestly the thing here was for me a life changing event,
I simply did not assume, such drastic changes can occur without to be informed.

Well if it does stay this way, I won't be able to buy new games on steam,
did really not expect such day to come.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Ursprungligen skrivet av RiO:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Dr.Shadowds 🐉:

Now your example of 1 out of 900k almost a million, either way is a very low chance, should check the odds of getting hit by lighting, claim 1 out of 1mil, when you stop to think, it's not common, and very unlikely. If someone told you if you have a chance being killed my lighting would you avoid going outside for the rest of your life?

The odds of being struck by lightning in any one given year are roughly 1:700K actually.
But if you extend that to being struck by lighting at any one point during your natural lifetime, it becomes roughly 1:3000.

Now apply that to the real world, and how really accurate are those odds? Also need to take into account of all the other things, such as where you are, and etc... The odds are not accurate but a wild guess, if one was out on the wide open field by him/her self, chances are that person odds getting hit went up, compare to others.

[RiO]

Ursprungligen skrivet av brian9824:

Ursprungligen skrivet av NeXuS23:

What is important here is "WHO" is the country and not the customer, so they do not need the customer's address / phone number. What they need is the country from where that transaction has been made, which goods are involved, the costs and a VAT/BID/MwST ID for said country.

Hence why they ask for the address to determine that. Just asking for country will lead to people lying and if they get caught they can just say they picked the wrong country by accident.

EU consumers have zero reason to go through the effort of lying about country of residence. They cannot evade VAT taxes, because

👉👉 CONSUMERS DO NOT PAY VAT TAXES 👈👈

Traders pays VAT taxes and consumers pay traders the store-front price, which is required by EU law to be VAT-inclusive.

I.e. it doesn't matter where you live in the EU; you always pay the same displayed store-front price. But it's the trader which loses a fluctuating cut of that to VAT returns.

[2life]

it is very strange regarding the fact that we all are not informed with this major privacy change.

1. They ask information right down traceable to your front door. So it is very much in our right to worry about a sudden change
   
2. a phone number is never required in a purchase e.g. not reliable tracing so useless
   
3. it is plainly said rude to not tell us exactly how the information is processed and used. Is it for tax? tell us how it is send. Even simple apps have a privacy policy more clear and explaining than this

Im disappointed in seeing Valve not considering our feelings as customers. At the very least inform us of what and how.

edit:
as for Tokrar with his answer i disagree. I see serious concerns about peoples privacy and data. As for taxes, the EU has regulation for all her members, so it's more than logical that there is magically everywhere the same rule. obviously a seven year old thesis is totally relevant now

[Blitzwing]

So can't Steam Simply add ID free Payment method?

I mean if EA Origin and Microsoft Cards are Regional Country bounded,
why not modify this way the steam cards?

[Paratech2008]

They don't even have the city I live in listed. They can't really verify millions of customers data with the limited tech they're using. They don't even have a complete listing of cities in the United States let alone globally and in the last 15 years many countries changed so I can't imagine Valve being up to date on addresses.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Coming soon... https://twitter.com/aldenkroll/status/1222629464183468032

[gamerhelligon]

Ursprungligen skrivet av dr.desastro:

Which still leaves open the question, why they additionally need the phone number. I am fine with the others - they are totally o.k. - but why - in a world of telemarketing and cold calls - should we give someone our phone number unless we trust them or it is really necessary? I mean...I am a bit nostalgic in that way as I come from a time where people just stood in phone books...unless they were bothered by marketing drones trying to sell stuff which in turn led to laws protecting the customer AND disgruntled customers now asking for not being in the telephone book any more.

While the other data is o.k. - phone numbers without any means of verification is useless. They could ask my phone company if it is my number and the request would be denied probably as this is considered personal data and not given out without a valid reason. Anybody could phone my phone company or me and state 'Hey, we are steam'. Do I have proof? Do they have proof?

The only thing I see is that my number is leaked in any way either by hacking or other things happening and turns up in a phone list for telemarketers annoying me. Or is compared with similar data by someone 'optimizing' the amount of ads I get and their topic. Which in turn I do not want. Period. Name and address is enough if not overkill and should be enough to tell steam where to send my tax money.

I am all o.k. with the idea 'pay taxes where you earn the money' - in fact, I like it as I like supporting my own country so making Steam paying taxes here and all I have to do is giving them an invoice address, I am fine. It is just that zoggin' phone number that makes no sense.

Notice how every time you ask about needing a phone number PLUS a physical address, they skip right over it?


I do not know EU laws as I am from the US. However I am being told that it's now MANDATORY for us to provide 1) Full name. 2) Billing address. 3) a phone number all for tax purposes.

A few problems here.

1) Steam has been taxing my purchases (when I still bought from steam) so it seems they already have the tax info they need from me. Unless they just made up an amount to charge me for taxes, in which case I would call a lawyer. Where did they send all those taxes I paid for the past year or more??


2) Why do they need a billing address as apposed to a postal code A.K.A. zip code? If it's only for tax purposes, then all they really need is my zip code to appropriately charge me the correct tax and who gets that tax.


What can a physical address do that a zip code can not do for tax reasons? What can a phone number do that a physical address can not do for taxes?

I am all for giving NEEDED information for certain things, but when I am being asked for more than that, it raises a flag for me and many others who do not have a "lay back and accept it" attitude.

I mean do you need to know my mothers maiden name, my blood type, and my favorite premier league team when I am taking a survey on "what kind of foods to you eat?"

[RiO]

Ursprungligen skrivet av gamerhelligon:

I mean do you need to know my mothers maiden name, my blood type, and my favorite premier league team when I am taking a survey on "what kind of foods to you eat?"

"Ofcourse we do. And your first pet's name as well please. That way we can be sure that if we screw up and lose your account data in yet another data breach, a few security questions you put on random other accounts will be attacked by script-kiddies as well." -- Valve.

#sarcasm

[gamerhelligon]

Ursprungligen skrivet av RiO:

Ursprungligen skrivet av gamerhelligon:

I mean do you need to know my mothers maiden name, my blood type, and my favorite premier league team when I am taking a survey on "what kind of foods to you eat?"

"Ofcourse we do. And your first pet's name as well please. That way we can be sure that if your account data leaks, a few security questions you put on other accounts will be compromised as well." -- Valve.

#sarcasm

Reminds me of that scene from the movie "now you see me" when they were on the plane doing the "mentalist" trick, fishing for info to get his security questions to have access to his bank account.


Still waiting on the answer of why a billing address when nothing is being physically shipped. Why a zip code (in the US) is not good enough.

Why a phone number is also needed when they already want / have a billing address.

[Brian9824]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Blitzwing:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Tito Shivan:

Where does the 100,000 monthly stolen accounts figure come from?

I did round up the 77.000 monthly stolen accounts from 2015

That number is 5 years out of date and steam has done quite a few changes to crack down and make it harder.

Also it has nothing at all to do with this thread. A hijacked account doesn't have any of your personal information visible, and its only hijacked if the user gives away their login information which is the users fault, not steam.

Ursprungligen skrivet av NeXuS23:

Ursprungligen skrivet av brian9824:

Hence why they ask for the address to determine that. Just asking for country will lead to people lying and if they get caught they can just say they picked the wrong country by accident.

Using the address instead means that the user had to have typed in a fake address, so if steam gets audited they can show they requested the info and that the customer blatantly lied to avoid paying taxes. There is no ambiguity or honest mistakes when you type in a completely fake address in another country.

My gosh, you assume people invest a lot of criminal energy in something where they don't benefit from anything. I mean why should people lie about the country? And it’s not out of the question that I could also make typing errors when typing in the address.

Because people will lie to pay lower taxes and save money. I see it at my work all the time. People try to bill from a different county to save 1% on taxes, let alone 5-10-or even 19% taxes that you pay in some regions in the EU. Heck in Florida right now I pay 0% digital tax still. So plenty of people in the EU if they could would lie about where they live to save 19% on their purchases.

People also in the past on steam would try to change their region to buy games at a lower price from a different region.

If someone made a typing error that's fine, any audit will show that. Now if you made a typing error and said you lived in the Netherlands instead of Germany then that wouldn't really be a typo now would it.......

[Brian9824]

Ursprungligen skrivet av gamerhelligon:

Ursprungligen skrivet av RiO:

"Ofcourse we do. And your first pet's name as well please. That way we can be sure that if your account data leaks, a few security questions you put on other accounts will be compromised as well." -- Valve.

#sarcasm

Reminds me of that scene from the movie "now you see me" when they were on the plane doing the "mentalist" trick, fishing for info to get his security questions to have access to his bank account.


Still waiting on the answer of why a billing address when nothing is being physically shipped. Why a zip code (in the US) is not good enough.

Why a phone number is also needed when they already want / have a billing address.

A zip code is not precise enough. You can have multiple taxrates inside a single zip code as it can cover multiple counties.

[mcc]

Well,
I guess it is about time 2 go back buying retail-editions.
Other options r:
key-resellers

Valve has crossed a red line with this move.
I did buy paysafecards or steam-cards 4 good reasons.

BTW:
If u add the info 2 ur acc, hackers can easily see this info when they have access 2 the acc bc this info can be checked by following a simple link.
The data is NOT protected.

This is simply a desaster in the making.

[gamerhelligon]

Ursprungligen skrivet av brian9824:

Ursprungligen skrivet av gamerhelligon:

Reminds me of that scene from the movie "now you see me" when they were on the plane doing the "mentalist" trick, fishing for info to get his security questions to have access to his bank account.


Still waiting on the answer of why a billing address when nothing is being physically shipped. Why a zip code (in the US) is not good enough.

Why a phone number is also needed when they already want / have a billing address.

A zip code is not precise enough. You can have multiple taxrates inside a single zip code as it can cover multiple counties.

How do you figure? I have 1 zip code where I live and in the same county my Aunt has a different zip code?

There is 16 different zip codes in my little county. How is this not precise enough?

https://www.zip-codes.com/county/nc-gaston.asp

I live in Gastonia, NC. I even show it on my profile so I have zero problem telling steam or anyone where I am from. But now I m told that they need an address now? Again, do they not have this already due to them having been taxing me for over a year now already?


Plus even if you do provide a physical address, why the need for a phone number as well? All I hear is address, address, address, and never anyone addressing (see what I did there) the phone number issue?


As I said I have no problem with RELEVANT information, but when you start asking for more than is needed, myself and several others start having problems with that.