FiL wants all our data

[HighlandCowSaysBooNotMoo]

My father in law works in a government role.
Today he put a message in the family WhatsApp group asking if we could send him our addresses, d.o.bs, mothers maiden names, our place of birth, our address history, previous maiden names etc.
Apparently he needs this info from his 4 adult children, their spouses (me included) , his own siblings and his siblings spouses, grandchildren, his in laws etc. Basically he is covering every member of the family and spouses etc over the age of 18.
He has put something light hearted about it being needed for an enhanced security check that he's been told he needs for his job.
He is not changing jobs or position in the company. He has been in this job for since my husband was a wee kid!!
A couple of people have responded straight away with their data.
DH says IABU not to share mine with his dad
What do I do?

How can he find out all her past addresses and the dates that she lived there?

And yes, she's an in law. But you do know that terrorists can be in-laws, right?

Again, when there's a security breach that results in an act of terrorism, everyone is up in arms. "Why wasn't this person properly security checked?"
Well this is what (part of) security checking looks like. It involves family members providing the information. Even with them doing so it can take six months to a year to process. There is no other practical way to do it.

This is not a complete stranger, it's someone the OP knows, trusts and "adores".

As others say this is all normal for enhanced vetting and his employers can't and shouldn't do the checks - UKSV is the government agency collating and checking information.

If its DV, you might be on the interview list 🕶

That’ll be because it’s the context that matters.

Exactly - so it's not that handing over all this data without a question is normal.

It's the context that makes it ok. So OP would be very reasonable to ask some questions before handing over to a jokey request on a large family WhatsApp (even if FIL is adored)

The context is that it’s her FIL, who works for the government, asking for information that is requested as standard by the government for the purpose of security clearance.

There’s a difference between your husband asking for sex, and Bob down the road trying his luck. The former may just get a yes, the latter a restraining order. Context matters.

OP is of course free to ask questions, I don’t think anyone is saying she shouldn’t. What is being questioned is the ‘fuck no! I’m guarding that information with my life! I don’t even have Amazon prime lest Jeff Bezos ever find out what brand of cat food I order, I will fight to the death over divulging my mother’s maiden name’ response.

I find the people who say with absolute certainty - its not required for security checks. Having had to give that info and more I can say it is information that is required for some security checks, I wouldn't profess to know about all security checks.

YABU. He’s not asking for a joke - it’s a perfectly normal request - just get over yourself and send him the details.

Absolutely.
Nothing is ever that secret.
However my mothers maiden name isn’t on the electoral role along with potentially lots of other stuff they may ask.
Although Im sure they can get hold of it if they ask the country of their origin.

@reclaimmyboobs why wouldn't you help people out ?

You can tell who has been through vetting and who hasn't

Maybe the security level has changed for his job and he needs enhanced vetting

It's painful enough as it without people being awkward

Then you would be wrong to think that - the person applying for (or renewing) the security clearance is asked to enter the data and is expected to obtain it.

Not time to re read it all but has anyone come up with a legitimate reason why you wouldn’t yet

the only 2 options I can think of it

1. witnesses protection

2. being awkward for the sake of it

As others have said DV clearance does involve this level of detail. It’s basically to make sure no one in the extended family is linked to anything dodgy.

If you’re still nervous, ask him to ask the employers to contact you directly to request the information or provide a number for the HR department so that you can talk to them yourself.

But perfectly normal for DV clearance.

This thread has just made me really glad that nobody in our extended family is weird and awkward when my DH has to collect their info. Honestly (obviously can’t speak specifically to the op’s situation not knowing his exact job or what country it is, but for what I’m familiar with) the person opening a file on you if you don’t supply the information is going to find out a whole lot more than just your mother‘s maiden name!

I probably would but it would be on my timescale, I think – life’s busy, you’d add “FIL admin” to whatever to do list app you use, and get round to it when you can. (It might look like I have heaps of time from MN posts but I can thumb those in while pushing a pram and not engaging my brain. FIL’s data list would need me to sit down and concentrate for 20 mins, and I have plenty of my own “sit down and concentrate for 20 mins” tasks piling up, so he and the government would be waiting a while.) I wouldn’t be needlessly obstructive but I would be mildly pissed off that someone else’s career meant me doing some homework for them.

Erm no as that's how passwords can be found out

Or simple security questions so can get online to your bank etx

Wow

Let's hope you never need twenty minutes of your FIL's time for anything. And I hope that he's never helped you out in any way. Because if he has, hopefully you'd be prepared to cooperate with something he actually needs.

...asking if we could send him our addresses, d.o.bs, mothers maiden names, our place of birth, our address history, previous maiden names etc.

That would take me around five minutes, not twenty. And I've moved several times

It is but good luck getting into most online banking these days. Most have biometric and 2FA access set up so even if they did reset the password you'll be notified on another device and they won't get on.

I'd still have a quiet word with FIL, not share the information via the WhatsApp and stipulate his partner isn't made privy to it though.

I work within a government agency and certain security vetting/clearance has to be renewed. I recently did mine again after 10 years and had to ask for all this info from family members.

Do you think every government department has access to everyone's details then? Ridiculous comment.

I am enjoying the idea that asking for the information in a transparent manner is creepy, but using a government database to secretly look it up isn't

Only if you're an idiot and have used that sort of information for your passwords, against all publicized advice.