Credit Cards in Kuwait

Today morning I visited the Apollo Clinic in Salmiya for visiting the pediatrition as my son was not well. The nurse in the reception greeted me and asked if I have an appointment. As I did not have an appointment, I had to wait for sometime to get my child's health file from the filing room.

Meanwhile, I have been asked to pay 8 KD as the consulting fee. As I did not have the currency, I have used the debit card over the KNET. Immediately after the request was approved, the recepionist has entered my card number to their computer including the expiry dates. Opps.

Are they allowed to store my credit / debit card data? Being someone in Information Security and specially in the credit card security, I am bit worried that these people may get into trouble.

Many times, the card data being captured are not securly stored by these companies as it requires more investment. What if a computer technican takes the database server for repairing or replacing the hard disk or hardware? He will be able to extract every person's credit /debit card with expiry date.

I have been told by many that similar practices are there in many organizations in Kuwait

There is an organization called Payment Card Industry Counsil for regulating the way the cards are being processed or stored.

What I have decided is that, I will use my card only at the ATM's and only the cash payments will be done at these counters