I've written this before and I'll do it again.
You want my personal ID, I want yours. And then you still wont get mine. But you'll be on my camera.
If I am travelling on company time and money you can see my company ID, the name is on the credit card, but that is it. And my company is big enough that if enough of us refused to use your business it would hurt.
ID theft is rife and the otiose demand for ID actually supports ID theft. In most cases it is a power trip by sad pathetic people.
Umm I was working a headshop at the time, you better not be buying a bong on company money.
ID theft is rife and the ones that take it in the shorts is the businesses, not the CC company and not the person that has their card stolen. Having someone check to see that the person holding the card is the person that belongs to the card decreases fraudulent charges.
Should the cashier take down information, of course not. The ID check should be, name, photo and that is it. Did your name match the CC? Did your face match the picture? If yes on both great you are you and the usage is legit. If no, well I just bought the person the card was stolen from extra time to cancel it and saved myself a loss. Losing a legit sale hurts the bottom line. Unfortunately I have to risk losing a legit sale to keep from making a fraudulent sale. Fraudulent sales hurt the bottom line a lot more than losing a couple of legit sales in a year.
Oh and if the person checking the ID is power tripping call a manager or walk away. Most cashiers are doing it because they were told to, not because they want some tiny bit of power or even care if the charge is bad.