When you buy something on Steam with a credit card, Valve collects your full credit card details — including card number, expiration date, and security code — and shares them with payment processors and uses them for anti-fraud checks.
Your complete credit card information, including the CVV security code, is processed by Valve before being passed to payment processors, creating an additional point of exposure for sensitive financial data compared to a direct payment processor relationship.
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Compare across platforms →Valve acts as an intermediary for full credit card data before transmitting it to payment processors, meaning your financial data passes through Valve's infrastructure — creating a data security risk point that consumers should be aware of.
REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: Payment card data processing engages PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) compliance obligations. In the EU, this also engages GDPR Art. 6(1)(b) (contractual necessity) and Art. 32 (security of processing). Under CCPA §1798.140, financial information constitutes 'personal information.' The GLBA (15 U.S.C. §6801) may apply to the extent Valve is considered a financial institution for payment data purposes, though this is unlikely given its gaming platform status. FTC Act Section 5 applies to data security failures.
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