E-mail address already registered

Question

I am trying to design a registration form that requests the user to enter their username and e-mail address.

I have been told that when a user attempts to register a username and/or e-mail address that is already registered in the database (or even recover their forgotten username and password), then the error message should not reveal if the e-mail is in fact already registered on the site?

I have bee told the validation/ error message should be a generic message rather than telling the user their e-mail is already registered on the site database.

I am not sure what to display to the user, if they attempt to register an e-mail address that is already registered.

What is the current school of thought on this issue?

Answer 1

Quite a silly requirement - you don't want a registration form to fail for 'no reason', you're just going to have huge abandonment.

If this is for a client, recommend that they reconsider. If it's for an assignment, just do it, because lets be honest, most assignments have ridiculous requirements anyway.