Are there alternative methods to using session variables for storing user input data in PHP applications?

Using session variables to store user input data in PHP applications can lead to security risks and potential data leakage. An alternative method to store user input data securely is to use PHP's built-in filter_input function to retrieve user input directly from the $_POST or $_GET superglobals and sanitize the data before processing it.

// Retrieve user input data using filter_input
$username = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'username', FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING);
$email = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'email', FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);

// Process the user input data
// (Add your processing logic here)