I am intrigued to learn that this just started Sept 1. I called in September and, half way through a phone call with a staff member on the GGL line, she stopped what she was doing and asked me for my passport number and expiry date. It *appeared* to me that she was at that point looking for any excuse not to assist. I asked why, and she said it "was standard data protection rules" and that it's "how it's always been."

I'm glad to see that indeed she wasn't just being difficult, and that maybe it wasn't as it appeared at the time. Although it would seem she was fudging it a bit by claiming that's how it's always been.