Hot off my piece on how posting online can harm your job prospects is this article which says it can also mess up your chances of getting an insurance claim filled. The details:
Your friends aren't the only ones interested in what you're saying on Facebook and Twitter. Insurance companies are exploring how to use social media to learn more about you.
Does that mean your car insurance rates will go up if you post about your interest in drag racing? Will your home insurance premium rise if you tweet about your vacation and let everyone know that no one's home? No -- not yet, anyway.
But insurance companies already check social media sites to investigate suspicious or expensive claims. And technology companies are building tools that will help insurers mine social media data to improve marketing and perhaps one day help price policies.
There's not much cause for worry now (the insurance companies are trying to figure out how to find the information), but it could be in the future:
With millions of such car insurance and home insurance claims filed each year, "insurers can't check everybody's Facebook page," says Peter Foley, vice president for claims administration for the American Insurance Association. "It's not a very effective tool."
But they may check social media sites if there are signs of fraud, he says.
"It's now common practice to use social media for investigating suspect claims," says Craig Beattie, a London-based insurance analyst for Celent, a research and consulting firm.
So, the lesson here is that if you're trying to rip off your insurance company, don't post it on Facebook.
No, wait, that's not the lesson. The lesson is actually the same as the previous conclusion when we discussed careers: BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU POST ONLINE. Assume everyone can see (or find) what you post and consider this before you comment, submit photos, and the like.
Again, you've been warned. ;-)
Darn, now I have to go delete my "Insurance Fraud Action Shots for 2006 to 2009" photo album off of Facebook.
Posted by: jim | September 19, 2011 at 06:57 PM
I'm going to have to take down shots odometer milestones which prove I'm driving a whole lot more than 12k miles a year!
Posted by: Jonathan | September 19, 2011 at 07:36 PM
This is the Big Brother George Orwell warned about. The only thing he got wrong was how shockingly easy it woudl be to get people to give up their personal info.
Posted by: Mark | September 19, 2011 at 10:03 PM
How do they get this information if your Facebook page is blocked to everyone but friends?
Posted by: Christy | September 20, 2011 at 09:12 AM
^^^lol. good one
Posted by: ed | September 20, 2011 at 10:05 AM
Christy: "Friends" that see your Facebook page can always talk about what is on your page with others or make copies of it. It is the same as when you share some secret with a few friends and then they blab confidentially to others. Ever have a friend tell you something confidential and ask you to keep it private. Then you find out everyone else is talking about it anyway. Same thing with email sent to somebody. You never know where it will end up.
The building manager at my condo got fired after someone found out he made less than flattering remarks about some of the condo owners on his Facebook page. Someone mailed copies of the offending Facebook page with the remarks to every owner in the building. I don't know who accessed his page, copied it, or did the mailing, but it was not smart of him to vent his remarks on Facebook. I personally don't think they were that bad, but the Board of Directors had a difficult defending him and so he was out of a job.
Posted by: kathy F | September 20, 2011 at 11:08 AM
That makes sense. I have seen that type of behavior myself. I guess it's a good thing I am 'really boring' and don't post much, and definitely nothing stupid like that. I have an aunt who is a teacher and she is always posting about her students. She uses a fake name so she thinks she is safe, but I still wonder how wise that is.
Posted by: Christy | September 21, 2011 at 09:32 AM
Insurance companies know me by my uncommon first name. Social media know me by my middle name. Good luck, insurers.
Posted by: RB Boren | September 21, 2011 at 11:00 AM
So it would make sense to post disinformation on your Facebook page: possibly a pitiful wail about how much you're suffering, or something that natters on about how the insurance payment saved your tail and how grateful you are because you couldn't have survived without it.
Mark is dead right about Big Brother. Big Brother is watching us all, and he ain't the government. In a post-1984 world, the only strategy that makes sense is to emanate disinformation at every turn.
Posted by: Funny about Money | September 22, 2011 at 08:57 AM