First of all, pardon me for my bad English.

So, with theese new rules (made in EU) about "authentication via mobile device" (imo, a real red carpet for hacking), plus the new stupid initiative by Valve, which is litterally forcing its costumers to give their strictily PD due to some non-yet-explained reasons about "taxes and/or region hopping" (not a single official statement from Steam, yet), Steam Wallet funds included, the situation is bad and heavy at now.

Really, I don't get why making so hard Players' life but anyway...

My question is simple.

Will GOG ever introduce its own Prepaid Cards/Codes?
Without unneccessary requests about consumers' PD, I mean: I get the thing to select the region but no way I'm going to tell to a private company where is my home or which is my phone number. Nor my name.

So, could anyone tell me something about? I'm just curious. :)

Thanks

Probably not. The logistics required to run a card network are vast and costly.

So not even Prepaid Codes? (which would mean less costs)

Mmm, I see. Bad news for me, I suppose. Ok, thanks for answer!

I'm not a GOG company representative, but think about this logically. Amazon, Steam, Google, all those companies are valuated in the billions. CDPR makes only makes millions overall. Which while plenty for many company (especially one in a former Bloc country) is simply a number.

Why not just buy a prepaid credit card? You don't have to give any information to buy it, can reload them almost anywhere, and use them anywhere. Stuff like that makes the idea of buying any stores prepay cards look like living in the stone age.

Because here, in EU, since September 2019 we have to authenticate every purchase made online through our smartphones and...

Well, call me paranoid, but from my pov the point is: considering how simple is hacking a desktop PC, how can I trust in mobile's security? Smartphones and tablets are more vulnerable: heck, there are several app which can violate your PD remotely.

That's my concern!

Do you? On every transaction? That’s news to me as when those rules were brought in (and we were still in eu) it wasn’t an every transaction event. In fact I haven’t had it once from any bank as yet, though it can happen. The aim is combat fraud, but as with all these measures, they only ever affect law abiding citizens and all the rest just get round it, so I am completely in sympathy. How does it work with regards PayPal? Do you still have to authorise via sms with your bank on a paypal transaction?

I'm not aware of this authentication requirement. I don't see how that would be managed, or why it would be different using a prepaid credit card rather than a prepaid gift card. Most sites would use the same mechanism for processing the sale in either case, so the authentication would likely still be required.

I'd be interested in learning more about how this authentication works though cause it seems a little weird.

Yup, sadly! I used PayPal, until first half of September 2019: then, an e-mail from PP which informed us costumers that due to new EU rules about online payments and purchases we had to install the app.

So, I went looking for some additional infos and... Well, the short version is nowadays you must have the app corresponding to the credit/debt circuit of yours: this app is a sor of a mandatory state to complete an online payment.

It's madness, for real... And this info have been confirmed to me by all bank officers with who I've talked.

After reading the FAQ of the legislation it seems to me like a mobile phone is only required if that is the authentication method the payment processor picks. Based on the outline of the legislation all of my payments in Canada meet the SCA standard cause they ask for the cvv2 number on the card. The requirement isn't to have a phone, it's to have something in your possession to prove your identity, that's the purpose of the cvv2 number. This is likely why nightcrawler hasn't encountered it yet, cause the payment processors are just using the cvv2 number.

Plus, UK cityzens never been part of Euro's Area: they were part of Europe, but still using their own currency and banking system.

That's fair, but based on what I can tell mobile authentication was just one suggested method, not the requirement. If it's being selected by the payment processors, that's on them. Unless I'm interpreting it wrong, but they just say it needs ot be something in your possession to prove who you are.

Have you tried Paysafecard? You can buy one for 10, 20 or 50 Euro and pay with it on GOG.

Nope: we (in EU) are assisting to the hugest operation about dropping every type of resposibility on costumers' shoulders.

You want buy something online? F**k you've already given yours PD to the bank or to the favourite credit/debt circuit of yours: EU want knowing everything by now.
And the quickest way to achieve this is making an authentication passage via app mandatory. For every operation.

Once you've purchase you must give "green light" via app.
In Italy, we can't use Paysafecard properly: it's way more complicated than others circuits due to the mayor payment service of ours.
We have the biggest example of a Big Brother Government Model in charge.

The information doesn't go back to the government. Each payment processor is responsible for their own SCA setup and authentication tracking. Also, from what I can tell, no payment information would be part of the 2FA portion so your concerns about security of your payment information are unfounded.

About the only thing this would affect is privacy, in the sense that you have to provide your phone number (if that's the required authentication).... but most of the payment processors can easily get that information anyways so from a privacy perspective you're not actually giving up much either.

I sympathize with your concerns about privacy and security, but a lot of them seem unwarranted in this instance. Or in the case of privacy, the ship on that sailed a long time ago.