Is Entering Billing Information Safe?

[Noddy]

Due to recent developments I was unaware of while I was offline, it seems it's necessary for us who prefer using Steam gift cards to enter billing info for tax reasons. While it has already been explained why Valve is doing this as the government is demanding it and it clearly can't be avoided because it would register consequences for the Valve company and those who likely rely on it. My question is this, as the title says, is entering my billing information into Steam in order to purchase digital goods safe? My home country, my state or province, my city or town, my phone number, and the address to the home I'm living in; are these things kept private and secure so that we can maintain our personal privacy from the prying eyes of outside entities who wish to use that information to benefit themselves?

[Ogami]

Its the same as when you shop in any other online store like Amazon or such.
So yes, of course its kept secure by Valve.
I entered all these information 8 years ago when i made my account, that was the last time i heard something of it from Steam.

[Zekiran]

It's exactly as safe as any bank. Probably safer, honestly, as banks are *targets*.

You're online. All of your information is already gathered and aggregated with tons of other users.

I would suggest get used to entering your information a lot more often, for online purchases, as this is a feature that will be world-wide soon enough.

[Noddy]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Its the same as when you shop in any other online store like Amazon or such.
So yes, of course its kept secure by Valve.
I entered all these information 8 years ago when i made my account, that was the last time i heard something of it from Steam.

Just never had to use it before, makes me a bit uncomfortable entering info online nowadays, its all innocent when you're younger and your parents probably signed you up for Facebook or whatever its equivalent is now. But when you see all these other companies, corps, and other entities using it to, well, manipulate you then it hardly sits well with myself and I imagine anyone.

I don't really like the idea of laying on my back and just accepting it, lot of people seem to have that thought process nowadays and not realize the consequences. But I am hoping and praying that despite recent mistakes on Valve's part they wouldn't betray trust like this.

Originally posted by Zekiran:

It's exactly as safe as any bank. Probably safer, honestly, as banks are *targets*.

You're online. All of your information is already gathered and aggregated with tons of other users.

I would suggest get used to entering your information a lot more often, for online purchases, as this is a feature that will be world-wide soon enough.

Didn't see your comment load up, friend.

[ReBoot]

Stick to reputable web sites. Amazon, Steam, PayPal.

[wuddih]

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-15690187
the only intrusion breach known to me, and that was a big one.

and then this thing happend a few years ago.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/valve-explains-christmas-steam-attacks
random cached pages were displayed to random people for a short period of time.
to mitigate the ddos attacks, someone at volvo ef'd up and loaded the wrong cache config. 34k affected users is only know because Valve said so. a year later there was a list with 150 data entries. either fake or compiled from people reporting this happening or someone really pushing that f5 button while the steam store webserver was already puking.

well, Valve has more holes in their games then they have in Steam.

[Noddy]

Well, I'm offline most of the time, maybe it won't affect me much, but I'd be concerned if affected other folks online more often than me.

[Zekiran]

Originally posted by Hazmat Templar:

Well, I'm offline most of the time, maybe it won't affect me much, but I'd be concerned if affected other folks online more often than me.

Again: you're online. You have a Steam account. You have a bank account. You have an email account - probably more than one, over time.

This is a thing that has to exist, and it's already got all the data, it needs confirmation that you're who you say you are when you're buying something, is all. Items that don't match - like someone in another thread wanted to use his original currency even though he's moved - will be refused.

Steam is quite safe - a few thousand accounts by an accidental exposure? That's... paltry compared to the sheer quantity of user accounts that COULD be risked if a real hack was made. But the likelihood of that having any real impact is very low as long as individuals pay attention to where they put their login information and security details.

Basic internet hygiene is important for every site. Password changes, not relying on external or third party 'save your info here' software, *remembering things*, those are way more important than the worry about whether Steam is unsafe.

Walking outside is unsafe.

[REDSHADOW]

Can anyone confirm why they need my billing information because of "tax requirements" I dont want to be paying more taxes other than that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ online tax that the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Government implemented

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by REDSHADOW:

Can anyone confirm why they need my billing information because of "tax requirements" I dont want to be paying more taxes other than that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ online tax that the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Government implemented

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6112-TDHB-4392

[Brujeira]

Originally posted by REDSHADOW:

Can anyone confirm why they need my billing information because of "tax requirements" I dont want to be paying more taxes other than that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ online tax that the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Government implemented

It’s to make sure that they’re gathering the right tax from you, at the right rate and paying it to the right government. And no, just going off your IP location isn’t good enough.

[REDSHADOW]

Originally posted by Brujeira:

Originally posted by REDSHADOW:

Can anyone confirm why they need my billing information because of "tax requirements" I dont want to be paying more taxes other than that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ online tax that the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Government implemented

It’s to make sure that they’re gathering the right tax from you, at the right rate and paying it to the right government. And no, just going off your IP location isn’t good enough.

couldnt I just enter a fake address?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

No. They'll put an account lock on your account.

[crunchyfrog]

It's absolutely safe as you can get elsewhere with banks and other important services. It falls under strict data protection laws that sensitive info like this has to be encrypted so even if there were a hack, they couldn't read it.

It's what Sony fell a bit foul of a few years ago when PSN was breached as they were investigated for this reason (I can't recall the outcome offhand, but that's not the point).

So, it's as safe here as you can get.

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by REDSHADOW:

Originally posted by Brujeira:

It’s to make sure that they’re gathering the right tax from you, at the right rate and paying it to the right government. And no, just going off your IP location isn’t good enough.

couldnt I just enter a fake address?

Think about it - if it's done for legal reasons, and therefore part of the rules now too, by lying about it, you're risking your account being locked.

Does that sound like a good thing?

Or would it just be better to just rest confident in knowing that Valve's storage of your data has to be BY LAW encrypted, so just as tight as your bank's info on you.

[REDSHADOW]

Originally posted by crunchyfrog:

It's absolutely safe as you can get elsewhere with banks and other important services. It falls under strict data protection laws that sensitive info like this has to be encrypted so even if there were a hack, they couldn't read it.

It's what Sony fell a bit foul of a few years ago when PSN was breached as they were investigated for this reason (I can't recall the outcome offhand, but that's not the point).

So, it's as safe here as you can get.

Im not worried about it being safe Valve does its best to make sure its not leaking any information unlike Epic games. What I dont want is to pay more in taxes or have information of me buying games on steam be in my tax forms we never had to do this with valve until the current administrations ♥♥♥♥ us over with this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥