I hate that shit. It basically ensures that if any identity thief in the world wants to know your full name and birthday, they just have to call you and ask. It

I hate that shit. It basically ensures that if any identity thief in the world wants to know your full name and birthday, they just have to call you and ask. It also implies that knowing your name and birthday is an acceptable level of verification for disclosing private information. Which is it? Is the (name, birthdate) pair so private that it can serve as an authentication mechanism or is it so public that you can be expected to tell any random caller who asks?