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?

Indeed!

I had to do this for BILs top secret job at the ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries😉. It’s to make sure that there are no skeletons in the cupboard and that there are no weak spots for potential blackmail. The vetting will probably take a year. They wanted my DH s family details as well so that was a very wide net they were casting. My membership of CND in the 80’s didn’t seem to be a problem . I even got a very odd market research phone call a few months into the vetting.

Your FIL may be more interesting than he seems!!

Tell him to pay Ancestry.com and look it up for himself. He will be able to. Perhaps he is secretly into geneology.

This. Quite common these days.

I work for a government department and there are some roles that do require this level of family information/data for enhanced security checks. Depending on his role, his authorities/permissions may have changed and for security reasons, he’d be unable to tell you this. I can understand you feeling uncomfortable with this, but it will be for legitimate reasons.

My husband has to have several of these checks and every time he is asked for siblings and in laws. It's the governments way of checking they are not letting known terrorists in to their buildings, and the relatives are seen as people who could coerce them.

If everyone has your attitude, we'd probably have more sleeping cells in high profile places.

No, because it is much simpler for the employee to get the information required.

I think your FIL must be a spy or at least in the Foreign Office. Don't you know? Or has he not revealed much about his job? Anyone is such a position is deeply vetted - their relatives may not even know they have been vetted.

Sounds like DBS checking. I did the same when I worked for government

I work for the government and have a high level of security clearance and this kind of information is required for my parents, siblings etc.

If he works for security services/ Home or Foreign Offices, this is standard. If he doesn't I'd clarify with him why these details are needed.

To check what info you provide against what their system already has perhaps?

Yes, it's normal for a government role. I was asked for my mother's partner's details as well as ours.

Plenty of roles in other departments require DV - transport, energy, many roles related to critical infrastructure or sensitive contingency planning measures.

My nephew works for the FCO and I was asked for my details in particular the dates and the reason why we had lived abroad in some "interesting" places for 10 years.

Completely standard for DV checks. I had to provide all this for ex once he got to a certain level at the MoD. He’d already provided it for me a few years before when I had my enhanced security checks (I was more senior than him before offspring came along)

Hand over the data but not on whatsapp.
Had to do the same for my brother and no even if his employer did approach me I'm highly unlikely to think it's legit!

Yes there is, it's called the National Care Records Service

Standard procedure, my cousin works for the Foreign office and for a new role he had to get documents from my dad's and and uncles boarding school abroad as far back as the 1960s for clearance!

I personally wouldn’t be sharing that on a WhatsApp message, family or not!

I work for a gov department this and a law was passed several years ago to allow cross gvt sharing and I can tell you now that it is absolutely not yet done. There is no way that for instance HMRC and NHS etc simply have that info and hand it all round to each other. It is very definitely not done yet.

If he works in government, totally normal. I have been through this process myself, all data is handled and stored securely and is merely to risk assess the candidate

This is totally normal for certain levels of security clearance. They probably already know all of it anyway, it’s just a check every so many years depending on level of security. DH gets these checks & we are NC with his parents & it’s the only way we know whether they are alive or not. I suspect FIL is being upfront in letting you know it’s going on, can’t disclose any more info & may be being a bit lazy as he could gather the info himself? These checks will have happened without your knowledge in the past I’m sure. FIL is not a creep & DH is not an idiot. 🤷‍♀️

I'd be asking for proof that he needs this info and who he needs it from. There must be some kind of request and/or a form to fill in.
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I had to supply a lot of family info when I was applying for my MOD security clearance. And I was asked for info when my stepchild was undergoing police checks for an overseas residence permit.

It could well be legit, but I'd request proof he has to supply all that personal info.