Could Using Social Networking Websites Raise Your Insurance Premiums?
Last week, we talked about the humorous and eye-opening website, Please Rob Me. The site, which compiled a list of public status updates from individuals using Foursquare and other location-based social networking websites, brought attention to a very real, yet often overlooked problem: If you’re telling people where you are, you’re also telling them where you aren’t. In other words, every time you share your location, you are letting potential criminals know that you aren’t home and that, if they wanted to rob you, now might be the time to do it.
What is interesting about Please Rob Me is the reaction the site received from many active social media users. While acknowledging that safety on Foursquare is a legitimate concern, many felt that the value of using social media tools outweighed the risk of exposing their home as empty. I wonder what they would say if their social networking forced them to pay higher insurance premiums.
In a recent article for the Telegraph, Darren Black, the head of home insurance for the UK-based insurance website Confused.com, wonders if insurers might not consider an individual’s social media use as part of their risk analysis sometime in the near future.
Quoting from the article:
“I wouldn’t be surprised if, as social media grow in popularity and more location-based applications come to fore, insurance providers consider these in their pricing of an individual’s risk. We could see rises of up to 10pc for people who use these sites.
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 this into account when they are assessing claims and we may in future see insurers declining claims if they believe the customer was negligent.”
What do you think? From an insurer’s perspective, it actually sounds somewhat reasonable. If you were to leave your door unlocked or leave a spare key hidden under the mat and someone robbed your house, you may have a tough time filing a claim with your insurance company. Could sharing the fact that you won’t be home amount to the same thing?
As our lives become more and more driven by social networking, it is important that we take time to consider some of the practical ramifications of our actions on the web. Being in control of your online reputation means being in control of how you use the Internet. If you’re responsible, you can make social media into a powerful personal branding tool for yourself and your business. If you’re not careful, however, you could wind up facing a whole array of problems that could leave your reputation hurting.
