Why Force a saved Address?

ganzaeso · July 27

Why are we being forced to save a billing address during checkout when it is not necessary for a single transaction?

I am more than happy to provide my billing address at time of purchase, but I do not want it stored with other related data that can become part of a data breach.

I immediately remove the address after every purchase, which is a really annoying thing to have to do.

requiring a billing address be saved needs to be removed from the billing process on the website.

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Please pass this along to whoever is in charge of website design.

BardokRedSnow · July 27

Not gonna happen, its to prevent fraud, pretty much every service does this and if it doesn't its because they have other ways to check your identity in relation to the card you are using.

They've been able to check your address for decades, if that's what you're worried about the ship has long since sailed.

imPDA · July 27

It is not a website design; it is a law. I am pretty sure once you purchased something, this address will be part of transaction information, and it will be stored for a 5 to 7 years (depends on a country and legal rules). So, deletion will not remove it completely, you just made database to change the record and set flag to "inactive". It will still be reachable if somebody would need to check billing address of any pat purchase in the future, but it will be hidden from a website UI. It is how databases designed to operate in most cases in my experience. Almost never database remove records if they tied to some other stuff (previous purchases in your case), they will be just marked inactive and hidden from a UI, because deletion of part of the data makes database inconsistent and hard to maintain. If they delete data - they delete everything at once - entire transaction at once with all transaction info including billing address, they will do it after some time (5-7 years in USA most likely) when they no longer need it or if you request to delete all information about you in accordance with the law (if applicable in your country).

ganzaeso · July 28

This is what I have a problem with. A check box is provided, which generally means it is optional to have it checked as it is not a confirmation or acknowledgement of a term or condition.

I just do not want to save my address for future purchases every time I make a purchase. I have no problem providing the information at the time I am making the purchase.

It seems like this is an error in the website's programming, where the check box field is marked as a required field, but is not supposed to be.

There is no legal requirements that an address must be saved for future purchases in any country, state, or province that I am currently aware of, but debating of the legalities of this is beyond the scope of this topic.

@ZOS_Kevin @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

I am sure this is just an oversight the web programmer did not see when making the form for payment.