Once upon a time when I worked retail we had a system that required such info. We never used it for anything but it still needed the info for whatever reason.

If someone didn't want to give their info we didn't cause a scene we just typed in some random garbeldy gook so the screen would go away.

The only time we actually needed real info was if someone was paying with a check, and in order for our system to allow the check to be processed it needed a verified birthday, address and ID number.