Facebook and Twitter – Your right to Privacy and Insurance Companies

If you are in a collision and are injured, you should be aware that what you say and do after the collision can be often discovered by the insurance company for the person or business that hurt you. I sat in a deposition recently with a client and the other lawyer wanted my client to sign an authorization to give them access to my clients Facebook page.  We live in the Internet age and many people will post or write things about their daily lives on their Facebook page or other internet media and think that it is only for those whom they select to read. Some courts are allowing insurance companies access to injured persons Facebook pages and some carriers send investigator out to try to “befriend ” an injured party to get access to Facebook to see if there are any comments about how the injures occurred or what the extent of the injuries are and how they are described.  Sometimes injured persons even post photos that the insurance companies can use against you in your claim.

A good rule to live by is that you should not do anything you would not want your mother to read about in the newspapers. A corollary to that would be you should not post anything on Facebook and other sources of internet media that you would not want someone to read (i.e. just because you have not befriended someone does not mean they may not be able to get access to your thoughts, blogs and pictures). Oh, in our case I was going to object to my client signing the release but it was moot since he did not have a Facebook page…