Yeah, it's a business decision, no doubt. The only thing is that when a solo founders make their products, they tend to ask users information just "why not"?
I mean, the thinking process is like:
- Okay, we need a sign up form
- Let's make users table
- Okay, first name, last name, password, email
- Okay, now let's make the form: first name, last name, password, password confrimation, email
While some apps just ask your email even without password :)
Of course if business needs those fields, then yeah. Just when developers work as businessmen, they tend to ask too much.
On a fundamental level, though, the actual datapoints that you gather through a form have nothing to do with UI or arguably even UX design.
That notwithstanding I fully agree with you on all points! GDPR is also very strict on what you can register, how you can use this data, and how you should inform the "data subject" (person) of what will happen with this data once they have sent it in.
I mean, the thinking process is like:
- Okay, we need a sign up form - Let's make users table - Okay, first name, last name, password, email - Okay, now let's make the form: first name, last name, password, password confrimation, email
While some apps just ask your email even without password :)
Of course if business needs those fields, then yeah. Just when developers work as businessmen, they tend to ask too much.