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?

I'd be telling you to get lost and to not contact me again!

This level of vetting isn’t even deep for the civil
service. Nothing strange about this request honestly.

"Incredibly secret" 🤣

Wow there really isn't a government wide computer system with everyone's info and all their connections in! How much resource do you think the government has? Its not like the films.

DV security checking is a massive ballache. As if the government have teams to go out and look into all this. You have to provide all the details. In the olden days it used to all be on a very weighty booklet hand written but I've not had one for a while. And god forbid if your family were from somewhere that doesn't have street names or house numbers (like mine).

Nothing dodgy about it, it's totally legitimate if its for DV.

My brother works in a role with the police and every now and again to advance or specialise in certain areas he has to have thorough background checks done. He has to supply the family details - no one else contacts us.

Just reply, sorry have heard about scams asking for this info, so I can't supply it. Hope you're not offended and understand where I'm coming from.

If his employers really need this info, surely they will then contact you and give evidence to price they're not scammers.

But what if he didn't know the contact details?

Ex SIL asked for some very personal information about me, my kids and my parents. She worked in a GOV department and had done for many years. I thought at the time it was because she had recently remarried but reading through this thread maybe it was a 10 year renewal check.

Either way, I refused because a) it was non of her business and b) she was a total cow to me when me and DH split up.

Tbh I doubt me saying no would have made much difference - her new DH would have been more than enough to set alarm bells ringing.

I have no clue what happened to her.

Or... you could pick up a phone and call him or speak to him in person to make sure it is your father-in-law asking for the information. I doubt very much that he is trying to scam you.

This is normal in my experience. I have been asked to provide this information directly to family members on both sides of the family, for HMG and other governments.

HMG picked up on the fact that my middle name on my passport differs by one letter from my birth certificate ( in another country), as I added the letter in tribute to my grandmother when I was a child. This required explanation.

All messages via WhatsApp are encrypted so it's the ideal way to ask for & receive sensitive data

All messages sent/received via WhatsApp are encrypted

It's very normal. And no the govt won't ask you first - they'll get him to do the leg work. Eventually you'll probably be asked to provide a reference in the form of a detailed questionnaire and an interview. It's a pain but necessary.

Some people on this thread are very naive and have no idea how govt works!

I wouldn’t be happy with his workplace having all my personal information including my families information potentially kept on their data base.
So it’s a no from me.

Well if it’s good enough for No.10…

True! 😀

That's not how it works I'm afraid.

DH took up a post in the MoD 7 years ago, and it took almost a year for him to get full DV clearance.
Me, SIL, PILS were all fully vetted.
It felt unbelievable at the time, because I didn't understand it.
But, they dig very deep to ensure that nobody in their circle is susceptible to blackmail, or could be in any way compromised by the official secrets act.

The suggestion that he may be a spy may
not be that far from the truth - I had a very nice, quiet, unassuming cousin by marriage (quite distant so don’t know about any vetting); in my part of the family we knew he’d travelled a lot and we thought he’d been some kind of diplomat or whatever but, after he died, it turned out he’d been chief of MI6!

That's absolutely fine, and entirely your choice. But he wouldn't pass vetting procedure.

@Readingallnight others agree with you on this. But if those with this viewpoint persist, they may cost the candidate his (in this case) job. Is that worth it?

And the information is held on some of the best protected machines anywhere.

It's your personal business..as an actual Civil Servant you are not asked about your family...they can do those checks without your help..I have never been asked about even my parents that I can remember, but I could have forgotten (I've been in this for ages)..I have signed the Official Secrets Act..this seems dodgy to me...

Happens in the Armed Forces but early on. I was interviewed, and presumably checked out, because of BF (now DH), but that was within the first five years of his career, not towards the end. His family were also checked out, but not interviewed, especially a family member from a politically sensitive country. To be clear the focus was on BF as a risk not me.

It does sound as though he is going to do a high security highly sensitive job that he may not be able to tell you all about

@JockTamsonsBairns and @poetryandwine i know and since posting that’s been praying on my mind and I’m not even in this situation.
I suppose if his workplace contacted me independently I would rethink it.
However, I am extremely cautious about people having access to my personal information.
Im even worried someone could have access to our new electric meter and see when we re on holiday. I burn every single letter with our address on it etc etc.
So handing out all that info, mothers maiden name etc if it got into the wrong hands would leave people wide open.

I hope I’m never put into this very difficult predicament.

I appreciate now, after reading others experiences, that it isn’t unusual.

The OP's father-in-law's phone is hardly one of the best protected machines anywhere.

It feels a bit odd (WhatsApp aside) because the govt already has this information, but they are the exact data points used for password verification. Can't the well-protected machines be asked instead?

Is she Russian @HighlandCowSaysBooNotMoo ?😉