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OK, so that would have protected Ashley Madison users. Because none of the likely interested parties (partners, private investigators, etc) would have leverage to get information from you. Same for users buying porn, unless they get investigated for child porn. That's not a KYC issue, but there will be a subpoena. And I'm assuming that you must comply with all subpoenas.

Edit: I wonder what your burden would be in bankruptcy cases.

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Ashley Madison and porn users are easy targets. But broadly-speaking, we just think you just shouldn't have to share your personal info with a random merchant you want to buy something from.

It's anti-privacy in the guise of being anti-fraud.

Yes, we do have to comply with subpoenas.

Yes, I totally agree.

Still, users arguably need to trust you more than they trust traditional credit card companies. But it's about the same as PayPal, I guess. They often do have access to users' bank accounts.

So anyway, I get the point. It's a useful service.

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