don't ask, don't tell
Websites, for their own self-interest, need to be much less interested in private user info. If Ashley Madison had relied on a 3rd party CC clearance mechanism and not stored CC info, then the hack would have had much less impact.
Why ask for sensitive data that you don't absolutely need and you then need to defend? AM had a good business model going, if of questionable ethics. Now it all risks going tits up.
Naive question, I know.
eHarmony for one likes to abusively bill subscribers' CC at the drop of a hat, including forcibly re-enlisting you if you don't cancel 3 days before end of your current subscription and then not allowing cancellation. Funny from a site who was originally an all-Christian site and who until recently was all prudish about same-sex dating.
On the user end, if you gotta do potentially really embarrassing stuff, learn not to do it in an easily bulk-traceable manner. That means normal CCs are out.
p.s "terrorism"? Really? Pretty soon everyone's gonna be a terrorist when these losers and the Greek ex-finance dude are so busy flinging the word around.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
