Checking into several bars in one night via FourSquare may not be such a hot idea, after all. According to Jeremiah Owyang, insurance companies are not immune to checking up on you via social sites like Twitter and Facebook. What they find could reward you in the form of lower rates. However, you could also find yourself having to pay more (or being dropped entirely) if you are engaging in “undesirable” behavior.

As Jeremiah points out, people doing things socially such as checking in to healthy restaurants could see that reflected in lower health insurance bills. However, if your insurance agent happens to see you bungee jumping on a regular basis via your Flickr account, things may not look so rosy when that next bill shows up in the mail. Jeremiah lists four ways that this may never work properly:

• The data may not be accurate. Just because someone indicates they’ve gone to a bar doesn’t mean they’ve indulged in Irish car bombs till the sun goes down or even drank at all. Don’t expect all checkins, self-expressions to be accurate on how they are actually living.
• The data could be gamed: it’s difficult to tie actual confirmation of said activities with the reality that they have. Anytime rules are set in place, there are opportunities to game it, expect loopholes and automated publishing tools to misrepresent actual behavior.
• Members will clam up to evade the ’stick’: If customers know that data they publish will be used against them, they’ll lock up the data and not make it public. Instead, they’ll just make their data available to their friends and trusted confidants –no longer public.
• Legal implications unexplored: We’ve not even explored how companies may be put at risk by using public information for or against members, which would result in a new class of legal services, great.

Those are all excellent points, but I have to loudly agree with the last one the most. Are we sure it’s even legal or moral/ethical for companies to “spy” on their customers’ private lives that way, and then use the information gleaned for their own benefit? We may never even have to worry about this. After all, most of the article is based on speculation. However, there was that one case up in Canada: a woman who had applied for medical disability was denied after the employer and insurance company viewed pictures of her playing on a beach via her Facebook page.

You just never know who is watching your every move online. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: IF you don’t want the whole world to know something, don’t post it online.

Can Use of Social Media Change Your Insurance Rates?

My parents were released from the hospital in Kansas City on Wednesday. Adam drove ‘em back to Des Moines, and Ponzi and I decided that it would be best for me to travel back to Iowa for a week to help them back onto their feet (so to speak). I’ve been driving them around town for the past couple of days, and I can say with a great amount of assurance that they’re well on the road to recovery.

Both Mom and Dad are are getting around fine, and Dad was just given clearance to drive on his own. Mom’s only dizzy when she’s laying down (which is apparently par for the course with concussions at this stage). We’ll see an ear doctor on Monday, and Dad’s got a few more meetings with neurologists over the next couple of weeks… but they’re both expected to make a full recovery.

Dad still hasn’t looked at the photos or videos that Adam took down in KC, but I’m sure he will on his own time. Mom is starting to send them out, but they both thank you for your thoughts and prayers. Mom even felt compelled to record something on their Flip (which survived the car accident without a scratch):

Now comes the tough part: dealing with auto and health insurance.

My Parents are Recovering

I definitely don’t agree with all of Michael Moore’s views, but he’s done the right thing in producing his new movie, “Sicko” – going directly after America’s unhealthy health care industry.

At the press screening for “Sicko,” the Wall Street Journal reported that hardened reporters and critics wept. Even those who have been harsh to me in the past, or who have not agreed with my politics, were moved. Aside from my stated desire that “Sicko” ignite a fire for free, universal health care (and a larger wish that we, as Americans, do a better job of treating each other with a true sense of solidarity and respect), I continue to hope that I can make a contribution to the art of cinema and give people a good reason to get out of the house for a few hours.

Health is something we all take for granted – until something goes wrong. Since did your wallet become a vital organ?

Health is Sick