Stripe asking for phone number during checkout

alfre2v

Deleting post as clearly you don't care.

z64

alfre2v We do not frame anything from Stripe or have any implementation of SMS verification in our code. We explicitly chose to use the stripe.com checkout page, instead of the embedded checkout form, so that is was as clear as possible that you are not giving your details to kagi.com.

If this is reproducible, please send our staff a video or screenshots of what you saw so that we can identify what it is coming from.

alfre2v

Deleting post as clearly you don't care.

z64

alfre2v I'm sorry to hear that, but please understand that you are insisting on something that does not exist in our codebase anywhere. The only likelihood is you are referring to the Stripe checkout page:

None of the above is something Kagi implements ourselves, it does not come from our servers. Everything you do here is controlled and performed by Stripe, including anything like SMS verification. Kagi has none of the data you input here, it is stored exclusively with Stripe.

If you are seeing an SMS form anywhere else on kagi.com - not the checkout - that could be something like a serious security issue happening on your client. But it isn't clear based on your description that this was the case.

We are completely ready to help figure out what the scenario was, but we need to be on the same page on what we are talking about so that we can debug the right things or escalate things to Stripe if necessary.

alfre2v

Deleting post as clearly you don't care.

ak42

I'm not kagi staff, and I tried to register without test mode:
page 1:

page 2 (right after clicking create starter account)

no sms verification whatsoever.

alfre2v

Deleting post as clearly you don't care.

alfre2v

Deleting post as clearly you don't care.

ak42

cross domain ?

pixel

Hi there,
If you select a paid plan (Starter, Professional, Ultimate, or a Family plan), we do immediately redirect you to Stripe checkout after you click "Create account" to streamline the process.

is this the page you are referring to?:

alfre2v

Deleting post as clearly you don't care.

pixel

alfre2v

It's a feature of Stripe called "Link" (https://stripe.com/payments/link).
As previously mentioned, we do not deal with phone numbers at all, Stripe automatically fills it in and prompts you based on your email address.

It could be the case that someone used your email with Link, and registered their phone number with your email.
This would make it so that whenever you use Stripe with said email, it would ask you to verify via SMS with their phone number.

You could reach out to Stripe support (since this is their product, and page) to see if they can remove it or figure out where it came from - but we don't deal with any of that stuff.

ak42

pixel It could be the case that someone used your email with Link, and registered their phone number with your email.

read that again.

alfre2v

Deleting post as clearly you don't care.

MatLebrun

alfre2v

"professional programmer"? 😂 with a "considerable expert opinion"? 😂

Sorry, I'm just a "typical Kagi user" 😂

ak42

dude, I think you are the only one stuck with this problem. just use another email address or an alias (checkout protonmail + protonpass they offer a very useful email alias feature). Anyone with a decent understanding of what privacy is would understand kagi's point. They do not want to have your personal information. They don't want to track whatever you are doing with stripe.
It would be a serious privacy issue if they were able to log whatever you are doing on stripe domain.

alfre2v

Deleting post as clearly you don't care.

z64

alfre2v Yes - if we're agreed that the issue is to do with Link on the checkout form, that all makes sense. Thank you for your patience.

However as mentioned, we have zero control over this part of the experience (Link). The only one who can make changes to what you just experienced or give more details is Stripe support. There is nothing we at Kagi can do, there is no information we have access to related to this. It does not touch our infrastructure at all.

It is true that we may lose some customers due to friction of onboarding via Stripe like this, but generally we do not receive any tickets about it and our conversion is extremely good. I believe Stripe does give analytics on customers deflecting during checkout, but I haven't seen them personally.

Ultimately we are not trying to engineer billing systems, we are just focused on making Search. So we are happy to let Stripe handle these details, and do the best we can with the tools that they give us.

carl

You made a purchase using Stripe Link on one of the many millions of websites that use Stripe Link.
You gave a fake number when asked, to protect your privacy
Stripe saves a cookie on your device, so that you can pay quickly on any website using Stripe Link, just by authorising the purchase with a code sent to your phone or e-mail
You purchase Kagi and select Stripe Link as payment method
Stripe send the confirmation code to previously mentioned fake phone number
Kagi probably has no idea.
They can check in their Stripe dashboard for customers who tried to make a purchase and failed, and why it failed (insufficient funds, denied by card issuer, failed verification, etc).

ak42

and FYI, both pixel and z64 work at Kagi. and that vlad support guy... well, he's the founder of Kagi 😆

alfre2v

Deleting post as clearly you don't care.

ak42

alfre2v
https://support.stripe.com/