The dark side of SNS like Facebook
Social Networking Sides are becoming more and more popular these days, as they offer huge new communication possibilities for private persons as well as companies. Unfortunately there is also a flipside of the coin, as these SNS can also be used for different kinds of abuse.
That Social Networking Sides are used by some employers to check on their employees is not really a head-turning news issue anymore, but it is quiet new that insurance companies use Facebook to collect data, and even evidence about and against their customers.
According to CBC News the Canadian insurance company ‘Manulife’ refuses to go on paying monthly sick-leave benefits to the 29 years old Nathalie Blanchard because of evidence pictures, the company found on her private Facebook account.
Blanchard received her sick-leave benefits for being unable to work because she was diagnosed with major depressions. Now Manulife refuses to pay her sick-leave benefits, because they found several pictures of her having a good time on her birthday and enjoying a holiday trip, which they take as an evidence for her well being.
All this happened although she informed ‘Manulife’ about her trip and she acted in advice of her doctor, who told her, that she should try to have fun going out, as means of forgetting her problems for a while.
Nevertheless, it is even more shocking that the insurance company could get access to her private Facebook account, although it is locked and only people who she approved should have had access to her posts and photos.
Regrettably this is just one of many examples that should make each of us think of the possible dangers that might appear from new media like web 2.0.
Fascinating … I love it !!!
What exactly are you loving? That people and companies are trying to get your personal data in any possible way?
Hmm I have to say I don’t really like that.