Private Investigators Check Out Claimants
It has long been known to solicitors that insurance investigators have been looking up the web pages of accident victims in the hope that they will find something untoward or out of place and that can be used against the injured party. Often solicitors have had to put up with sniping comments about clients’ photographs or listed activities on sites such as face book or MySpace from claims investigators in insurance companies.
Up until now they haven’t paid too much attention. Private information is private ... isn’t it? Well, maybe not actually. Your online privacy settings may not help you to prevent such people getting access to your private information. Be careful what you post. In a recent California case the a courts ordered discovery of a victims private information on social networking sites as the defendant company said that her public profile contradicted her claim that she was injured.
The defendant company got hold of her private postings and information from the Social networking sites Face book and MySpace. Even worse, the Order was made against the sites direct so she didn’t even get a chance to edit out any embarrassing or irrelevant content! The question is, will the trend be followed here and all we can say is that we hope not. This is frightening and could be the thin end of the wedge. Will the Insurance industry want access to your web searches on similar grounds?
