Smiling on Facebook costs Canadian her insurance
MONTREAL (AFP) – Facebook can be a double-edged sword, a Canadian woman learned when an insurance company cut her health benefits, claiming she was healthy after seeing pictures of her smiling in bikini at the beach. Nathalie Blanchard, 29, took long-term sick leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, more than a year ago for severe depression. She was receiving monthly benefits from her insurance company, Manulife. When Blanchard called Manulife to inquire why the payments dried up, the insurance company said that "I'm available to work, because of Facebook," she told CBC television. She said that Manulife cited several pictures Blanchard had posted on her social networking website page, including some showing her enjoying herself during a male strip-tease show at a Chippendales bar, celebrating her birthday and bathing in the sun. Based on these postings, the firm claimed Blanchard was no longer depressed. Manulife declined to comment on the incident but said in a statement that "we would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based on information published on websites such as Facebook." But the company did recognize that it uses such information to learn more about their clients.
The big question, what is the legal standing of information published on a social networking site? I definately do not think that it should be the basis of one losing a job, or insurance! On 11/22/09, aki <aki275@googlemail.com> wrote:
MONTREAL (AFP) – Facebook can be a double-edged sword, a Canadian woman learned when an insurance company cut her health benefits, claiming she was healthy after seeing pictures of her smiling in bikini at the beach. Nathalie Blanchard, 29, took long-term sick leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, more than a year ago for severe depression. She was receiving monthly benefits from her insurance company, Manulife. When Blanchard called Manulife to inquire why the payments dried up, the insurance company said that "I'm available to work, because of Facebook," she told CBC television. She said that Manulife cited several pictures Blanchard had posted on her social networking website page, including some showing her enjoying herself during a male strip-tease show at a Chippendales bar, celebrating her birthday and bathing in the sun.
Based on these postings, the firm claimed Blanchard was no longer depressed. Manulife declined to comment on the incident but said in a statement that "we would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based on information published on websites such as Facebook." But the company did recognize that it uses such information to learn more about their clients.
-- Sent from my mobile device Grace L.N. Mutung'u (Bomu) +254721898732 +254736091242 Kenya
Grace, It's been going on for some time now... Alex --- New Zealand judge allows papers served via Facebook Business and Law By Rick C. Hodgin Monday, 16 March 2009 New Zealand judge allows papers served via Facebook Wellington (New Zealand) - Earlier today, New Zealand High Court Associate Justice David Glendall approved the delivery of court papers via Facebook to a man being sued over business dealings, Craig Axe. Axe reportedly took US$241,000 from his family's "market garden company account". <http://www.tgdaily.com/business-and-law-features/41733-new-zealand-judge-allows-papers-served-via-facebook> ------ Australian couple served with legal documents via Facebook An Australian couple who defaulted on their mortgage have been served legally binding court documents via social networking site Facebook. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3793491/Australian-couple-served-with-legal-documents-via-Facebook.html> ---- [Business Daily] ODDS & ENDS 22 Dec., 2008 'Facebook a new way of tracking down defendants' --begin--- Lawyers in Australia expect the Internet social network site Facebook to become a new way of tracking down defendants after a landmark court ruling. The Supreme Court in Australia's Capital Canberra has ruled that Facebook is a sufficient way of serving legal documents to defendants who cannot be found. The case surrounded a couple who defaulted on a loan, but who couldn't be found."We couldn't find the defendants personally after many attempts so we though we would try and find them on Facebook," lawyer Mark McCormack said. "We did a public search based on the email address we had and the defendants Facebook page appeared." --ends--- On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 8:59 AM, Grace Bomu <nmutungu@gmail.com> wrote:
The big question, what is the legal standing of information published on a social networking site? I definately do not think that it should be the basis of one losing a job, or insurance!
On 11/22/09, aki <aki275@googlemail.com> wrote:
MONTREAL (AFP) – Facebook can be a double-edged sword, a Canadian woman learned when an insurance company cut her health benefits, claiming she was healthy after seeing pictures of her smiling in bikini at the beach. Nathalie Blanchard, 29, took long-term sick leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, more than a year ago for severe depression. She was receiving monthly benefits from her insurance company, Manulife. When Blanchard called Manulife to inquire why the payments dried up, the insurance company said that "I'm available to work, because of Facebook," she told CBC television. She said that Manulife cited several pictures Blanchard had posted on her social networking website page, including some showing her enjoying herself during a male strip-tease show at a Chippendales bar, celebrating her birthday and bathing in the sun.
Based on these postings, the firm claimed Blanchard was no longer depressed. Manulife declined to comment on the incident but said in a statement that "we would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based on information published on websites such as Facebook." But the company did recognize that it uses such information to learn more about their clients.
-- Sent from my mobile device
Grace L.N. Mutung'u (Bomu) +254721898732 +254736091242 Kenya _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke Other lists ------------- Announce: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks-announce Science: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/science kazi: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/admin/kazi/general
On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 5:59 AM, Grace Bomu <nmutungu@gmail.com> wrote:
The big question, what is the legal standing of information published on a social networking site? I definately do not think that it should be the basis of one losing a job, or insurance!
It has the same legal standing as email. Be very careful what you make public on social networking sites. In most cases the information can never be deleted entirely.
participants (4)
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aki -
ashok+skunkworks＠parliaments.info -
Gakuru Alex -
Grace Bomu