Xbox Live: The "Roach Motel" of Personal Information

Now I know I'm a bit behind the curve, but I finally got around to purchasing an Xbox Live Gold membership so I could see how bad I really am at Gears of War.  For a brief moment, I felt like Private Pyle from "Full Metal Jacket" cleaning my rifle - "Everything is clean...smooth." Registration was a snap; just enter my credit card number, verification code, name, and current address - and in no time I'm online getting fragged to death and spending more time as a spectator than I'm actually fighting.

Well, once I got tired of watching everyone else have fun, I decided to revisit my account settings so I could remove my credit card information (as I commonly do with any online account that stores my personal information).  Much to my surprise, there's no "Delete" ability from the console menu. I can add all the credit cards I want or update any existing information, but I can't delete ANYTHING.  Thinking that it's just getting late and I'm missing something obvious, I decided to let it go for the night and look into it the next morning.

Since being an information security professional is accompanied by a healthy amount of paranoia, the first thing I did the next morning is start Googling terms such as "delete|remove Credit Card Xbox Live" to see if anyone else has encountered this problem.  Much to my dismay, it is indeed impossible to remove.  Yes, I used the word "impossible." Some people "think" they have the solution - but none of them are successful.  This is truly a case of "You can put your personal information in, but it won't come out." Getting a bit more concerned, I decided to take my chances and call support.

Here's a short list of responses I received from calling 1.800.4MY.XBOX:

• Yes, canceling your subscription will remove your billing information from your account.
• Well, the only way to remove your billing information from your Xbox console is to completely wipe out your HDD drive and start a-new.
• Sir, I don't understand what you're concerned about.  Only you can see your personal information.
• Ok, I've entered a bogus name and address - so your billing information is now useless and you're all set.
• I'm sorry sir, you'll have to call Microsoft for that.
  

Minus the second response (which is just asinine and, in theory, would probably work - but it's just a bit "bull in a china shop-ish"), all proved false, incorrect, inaccurate or just plain wrong.  As for the last one, well...you got me there.  I'm still trying to figure that one out.  But customer support isn't the problem - they're just doing their job and getting frustrated with them gets you nowhere - there seems to be something much more sinister at work here.

Next thing I decided to do was closely re-read the privacy statement, conveniently located right on the Xbox 360 console.  Sure enough, it explicitly states I have the ability to "update" or "add" items for billing - but conveniently leaves out the "delete" ability. I even found a KB article that eerily ignores "removing" your personal information.   Not only am I at a dead end with customer support, now I'm suspicious and have only one burning question - Why?  What benefit do I, the consumer, get by not being able to delete my personal information and why all the barriers and misinformation?  Unfortunately, I don't know - but rest assured I'm looking into it.

If you've read this far, I'm sure you're probably wondering what I did to relieve my all consuming paranoia. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do, short of canceling your current credit card, that will be effective.

Although I was once fired up about joining the Xbox Live community and the prepaid membership cards will indeed satisfy my privacy issue, I still have a bad taste in my mouth from this experience and will have to let this issue rest before I attempt another subscription request.

Apparently, it's more important for me to ensure that I'm absolutely, positively certain that I want to close Microsoft Word document without saving changes than it is to alert the user that their personal information just checked in to the Xbox Live Roach Motel and can't check out.