Insurance Companies Access Facebook

In 1977, my grandfather gave me my first car. I was 14 years old. One year later, I came home from school one afternoon and found him sitting at the kitchen table wanting me to join him for a conversation. I could tell it wasn’t going to be good by the expression on his face. Reluctantly, I sit to hear what he had to say. He started the conversation by telling me the financial trouble we were in. I already knew we were broke; but, as for any 15-year-old, it was of little concern to me.

My grandparents raised me from age 2 and they always made sure we had the basic essentials. Up until now, I never knew some of the things he had done in the past to keep us fed and clothed. Well, I found out that day. He looked at me with a serious expression and said, “Son, I need you to go burn your car”. My heart sunk because I knew he wasn’t joking, and I knew there was no talking him out of it. He told me to clean out my most important belongings but leave things that could be replaced, such as the stereo, 8-track tapes, baseball glove, etc. He said that the investigator would find traces of these items, convincing him that the fire was an accident because people normally clean every thing out of the car before burning it. Next, he gave me step by step instructions in how to do it, where to do it, and exactly when to do it. I did it exactly as he instructed.

As I walked away from the towering flames, the horn started blowing as though it was screaming out in agony. I still have flashbacks every time someone blows their horn at me in traffic. I walked the dirt road to my uncle’s house and, with a fake panic, told him my car was on fire. He immediately broke into laughter and said, “Aw hell, old Jess is burning another one”. His reaction took me by surprise but I never said a word, one way or the other. Later on, others told me that my grandfather had done this many times before; and, for the real shocker, he had paid someone to burn one of our houses 9 years earlier. Of course, his goal in all these incidents was to defraud the insurance company to get cash.

I’m only telling this now because he is dead, I was a minor, the statute of limitations is well past, and it directly relates to the subject of this blog.

According to a TFTS Technology, Gadgets, Curiosities article (http://nexus404.com/Blog/), insurance companies are now trying to use people’s electronic media, such as Facebook accounts, to gather evidence to discredit claims for damages. The example they give is a Canadian woman who had been on extended sick leave for depression. The insurance company that was paying her sick leave salary found pictures on her Facebook account of her partying at local bars and enjoying tropical vacations. Although she argued that doctors encouraged her to partake in these activities to help her depression, the insurance company still terminated her coverage. In another Canadian case, an insurance company tried to subpoena a claimant’s private Facebook account to prove the person’s claim for long-term disabilities was a fraud. The judge in this case denied the request but that’s not always the case. I read some of the comments on these articles and found mixed opinions. Some people compared this to illegal entry into their homes by insurance companies. Others stated that if they had nothing to hide, then why should it matter (must have been an insurance lawyer).

I feel strongly against insurance companies accessing people’s electronic media for legal purposes  because electronic pictures, and even blog entries, can be altered and misleading. Notice I threw in “blog entries” as an attempted disclaimer for the first paragraph above. I think the best thing for me to do is cancel my Facebook and Twitter accounts as soon as this class is over. Having such a colorful upbringing, I’m always looking over both shoulders. It’s my luck that an insurance company will use this blog someday to discredit me on a legitimate claim.

As for my scenario above, one might ask if I would have put pictures of my car, in its finest hour, on Facebook; if Facebook had been available in 1978. The answer is NO. I would have, however, shown off a couple Polaroids of a good marshmallow toast that night while describing how they tasted like gas and burnt rubber.