Steam is less fun, convenient and more scummy to buy games nowadays.

[InsufferableCynic]

To be fair to Steam, this isn't entirely their fault. The USA has been stepping up "Know your customer" regulations a lot over the last decade, and Valve has to comply because they are an American company.

That said, the entire internet seems to be going the same way. GOG is owned by CD Project who are Polish, and they do the same bullshit. I still much prefer to buy from them, though, because I actually own the games I buy on there.

If you DO care about privacy, I would generally recommend using Steam gift cards bought with cash, or buying yourself a prepaid Mastercard or Visa "gift card" available at most stores, also with cash.

 

[Cobalt]

If your that worried about it just buy everything using Steam gift cards and set your address to one on a US military installation so you don't have to pay sales tax. All jokes aside though I don't mind Steam personally, if I'm going to buy things online then I'd prefer it be done through one centralized website than to have my billing info floating around on a million different game devs websites and having to install a gorillion different launchers etc. Plus with Steam you know for a fact you aren't downloading a virus or anything and I like how on the store page they let you know if a game requires a separate launcher, account, or EULA, so you can avoid those games easily. I agree that Steam has a lot of issues but in my opinion it's not the worst thing ever.

 

[Redwood]

Cant you make your billing info random stuff? I just write a bunch of ones on the address bar.