Posts tagged as:

insurance

Higher Insurance Premiums Predicted For Facebook, Twitter Users

February 23, 2010

There are many ways a user can become a victim of online oversharing.

Leaving aside the social-network related crime, have you ever though that your post on Facebook and Twitter could raise your insurance premiums or get your insurance claims denied?

Experts on an insurance comparison website, confused.com, warned that people who use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter could eventually face price hikes of as much as 10% in their home insurance premiums.

Darren Black, Head of Home Insurance, confused.com says, “criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their information gathering even using Google Earth and Streetview to plan their burglaries with military precision.

“Insurance providers are starting to take into account when they are assessing claims and we may in future see insurers declining claims if they believe the customer was negligent.”

The website pleaserobme.com has recently highlighted the issue and dangers of online oversharing by listing empty homes, which have created quite a debate on the affects associated with it.

We have also heard about Nathalie Blanchard whose insurance benefits were reportedly pulled back by her insurance company in regard to her info and photos on Facebook.

So, it’s apt to say that not only informing others you are not home, but posting photos of extreme sports hobby or one that depicts your negligence etc might as well cost you dearly.

It is very advisable to be very careful about what you share online, which in the worst-case scenario might even endanger your life and those around you.

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Depressed Woman Loses Benefits Over Facebook Postings

November 25, 2009

Recently, a victim basing on a updated status message, a teenager was acquitted in a robbery case. Now, there is another news going around that basing on some photos and posting on Facebook, a woman had her insurance benifits pulled back.

Nathalie Blanchard, 29, has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, for the last year and a half after she was diagnosed with major depression. She was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from Manulife, her insurance company, who reportedly pulled back her insurance this fall.

“I’m available to work, because of Facebook,” and some seems-happy pictures including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday posted on Facebook were used as evidence by her insurance company to determine that she was no longer depressed.

According to the CBC news, Blanchard said that on her doctor’s advice, she tried to have fun, including nights out at her local bar with friends and short getaways to sun destinations, as a way to forget her problems.

She also doesn’t understand how Manulife accessed her photos because her Facebook profile is locked and only people she approves can look at what she posts.

I would admit that this news came as a little creepy one. So, i would like to remind my dear readers to be careful in what you post online and who has access to your information. As in the case of Ms. Blanchard, you never know what will be used against you. What i don’t understand is why on earth the company would go around snooping around her social-networking profile or rather how they saw her profile. Taking into consideration all the hype about privacy settings in social networking sites, it is just might not be the company but someone on her friend’s list happened to be a snitch.

Anyway, i just hope that she get’s justice real soon. I don’t think i am gonna sit around in solidarity if i am depressed and is try to get back on my life.

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