Can Facebook Screw Up Your Home Insurance Claims?

In the past I've heard that updating your Facebook page could be dangerous for your possessions.  The reason being, since we all love to check in at places, or tell the world what we're doing, any opportunistic crook could conceivably take advantage of the information.  Taking advantage meaning that if they knew you were out of the house, it would be safe, and easy, to go break in and take what they want.

It goes something like this...

Despite some of your best efforts to protect your privacy, if you're one of those that fills out all the information in your profile, IE:  Address, phone number, etc., you sort of open yourself up to being targeted.

Sure, you might take your profile info and then try to set your privacy settings.  But if you miss a setting somewhere in your profile, and one of your online friends does not have any kind of security settings on their account, you're as good as giving out all your information.

Never mind hackers who might somehow get into the database or a wayward employee who loses a laptop with all the information on it.

No...  most of that is not likely, but wouldn't you hate to be the first one that everyone talks about?

Then, let's take this a step further.  As SocialNomics puts it, if you've posted about carpet damage from a water leak, and then a FB friend reposts it with a joke about how the party got out of hand, you might just find yourself in hot water.

Facebook and other social networks are how insurance companies discover fraud.  It sounds crazy, I know!  But again, I'd hate to be one to have to test those waters!

If you think about it, FB has a billion users.  How many do you think are naysayer evil-doers?  It's food for thought and I thought you might be interested in seeing this perspective.

There's more at the source if you're interested...  SocialNomics.

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