PREMIUMS COULD RISE UP TO 10% FOR ACTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA USERS
If you’re an avid user of websites like Facebook and Twitter, watch out. Your insurance company could penalize you for your social media usage.According to Confused.com, home insurance companies could soon begin monitoring services like FaceBook, Twitter, Foursquare and Google Buzz. And the result would be increased premiums of up to 10 percent for those who share too much information.“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,” said Darren Black, the head of home insurance at Confused.com. “We could see rises of up to 10pc for people who use these sites.”The problem, Black said, was that all of these sites allow users to post their current location at any given time, essentially broadcasting to all would-be criminals that they are not home.“Criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their information gathering, even using Google Earth and Streetview to plan their burglaries with military precision,” said Black. “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.”Confused.com recommended that users don’t post their home address or other personal information like their phone number, refrain from following or friending people they don’t know, and turning off all location-based services.
via Facebook, Twitter use could cause increased insurance rates.
