Posting stuff on Blogs , Facebooking and elsewhere - be careful....

[Ian Robinson]

Spotted this : http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/22/2749889.htm?site=news

We all know insurance companies will go to great lengths to avoid coughing up when you make a claim , and will rip you off given the opportunity .

You need to be very careful about how much of your life you share on blogs , logs, chatplaces , FaceBook and the like .... you don't know who is looking and reading that stuff and what they'll do with it .

You open yourself up to sexual predators , scammers , and if you say anything nasty about anyone risk being sued or sacked , and if you are on compo , recieving / recieved a compensation payout or pension the information there can be taken out of context and used against you like what happened to the lady in the linked story....

[jjjnettie]

Well she was a silly woman wasn't she.
If she was honest she wouldn't have been caught up in this mess would she.
And if you are a nice person, you wouldn't be writing anything slanderous about other people.
Sexual predators? They're not just online. We seem to forget that one rule that we drum into our kids. "Don't talk to strangers". The same applies to adults too. If you're into being flirtatious online, this is the risk you take.

LOL I took a sicky from work once, to be with my Mum when she received an Australia Day Award a number of years ago.
How proud I was standing next to her while our pictures were taken for the Courier Mail paper. Doh! Busted.

[Octane]

I read the article about the woman suffering from depression a few days ago. Mental health issues such as depression are serious issues.

On good days, one can be brilliant, and without a care in the world.

On bad days, one has problems with getting out of bed.

It is my understanding that mental health practitioners encourage sufferers of depression to get out and about on days that they feel good and are able to.

To dismiss her entitlement (which she has paid for) because of a photo on F*c*b**k, is senseless.

I've mentioned this before, but, I'll say it again, employers/recruitment agencies actively seek out F*c*b**k profiles of potential job applicants to see what kind of riff-raff they hang out and associate with. It's pretty much common practise nowadays.

[PCH]

Ian,

interesting that you point out how the info one posts on these sites can be used against you.

But you don't mention of the fact that she was in all likelihod shafting the system big time and didn't deserve the benefits in the first place.

Funny how two people can read the same article and see it from two entirely different points of view.

I've worked my own business for many years in the past, and have been the subject of 'shaftings'. I'm guessing you haven't :D:thumbsup:

[Esseth]

A lot of people are commenting on this without knowing the full story I think... I work in the insurance/investigations industry and I can say that I doubt it was the only information they were using to determine the claim.

Chances are they did both factual and surveillance investigations and they had a lot more information than what they got from Facebook.

Just for the record, a lot more people than you would think put in fraudulent claims and its costing people.... I don’t mind though as it keeps me in a job lol

[Kal]

If you are gonna scam workers compo then you better watch out for Tracy Grimshaw and Matthew White as well :rolleyes:

[starlooker]

Didn't the insurance company get any professional assessment(s) of the woman's depression before starting to pay her benefits?

Or did they just take her word for it, and then felt justified in stopping the benefits because they think she lied? If that's the case, there doesn't seem to be any science or professionalism to how things have been conducted.

[Outbackmanyep]

"Folks are dumb where i come from...."

[AstralTraveller]

Exactly. That is the advice I received from the counsellor when I was being treated for clinical depression. To help myself I was riding a bike most days. I was fitter than I have been in decades, but I couldn't talk to strangers, I still had habitual suicidal fantasies (sometimes even when riding) and on bad days I wrapped myself in a blanket and hid in the bedroom.

Getting myself back to the point where I could again hold down a job was bl**dy hard work. There were enough tears to break a drought. So hearing ignorant tosh about depression makes my blood boil. I wouldn't wish it on anyone but if you haven't been there you _just_ _don't_ _know_. I'll stop now before the mods have to get involved.......

[FredSnerd]

All the best to you David. I wouldn't worry about some of the senseless comments here. People are always quick to judge everyone else harshly, esp when they're judging from ignorance. Of course (regardless of the justice of the woman's claim) there is no one on this site who would come out squeaky clean if their affairs were kept under surveillance. But you know, don't let that get in the way of our fun whenever we see a fellow inmate get the boot. More surveillance I say. Lets watch everybody 100% of the time and make sure nobody ever gets away with anything. God may have given us free will but we can fix that.

[AstralTraveller]

Everyone, I'm sorry I snapped.

The truth is that someone offended me at work yesterday. I had put it out of my mind and was going fine until just after I wrote those two posts at about 1.30am and then it came back to me. I got to bed about 4 and was in a pretty bad state by then. I wasn't much better when I got to work. I over reacted to some comments and vented anger which should have been directed elsewhere. Sorry.

I've been up and down all day and I'm about to go home early and watch the cricket. If I look after myself and get a good sleep I should be chirpy again tomorrow.

[dpastern]

Dave - best wishes with it. Depression is not an easy thing to deal with. You have your good days, your bad days, and your average days. You have your days when you just want it all to end and you try and find something that convinces you that it's all OK. As a society, we show little care or empathy for mental illness sufferers. I've been there and done that, in fact, I'm currently on medication (Luvox 100mg) and seeing a therapist. You are not alone.

Dave

[bloodhound31]

I have a mate from church who suffers from this. I just love having him over to talk, watch a movie or generally chirp him up. Doing this chirps me up too! Makes me feel like I am helping in some small part.

God knows I can be a depressive pain sometimes and I have no mental health issues (that I know of) (or do I?) Why am I talking to myself? I dunno Baz. ;)

We need each other people, lets not judge, but support each other. :thumbsup:

Baz.

[Jen]

Oh bugger and i was gonna pull a sicky tomorrow just because it was Friday :lol::lol:

Hey Al hope you get better :thumbsup:
I can feel a group hug coming on cheers guys you are awsome :thumbsup:

[desler]

On Those days when you just want the world to stop and get off, I try and think of sitting in my backyard, watching the laptop as images upload from the Canon......

As far as I'm concerned, astronomy, either visual or astrophotography is the best pressure release valve around. Not as cheap as a couple of bottles of red, but I don't get the hang-over. :P All the best!


Darren

[jjjnettie]

Astronomy is a great healer of the soul and mind.
It's gotten me through some very bad times, still does.
I've found this forum, or should I say the people in it, a great support.
Compassionate and caring.

[GrahamL]

Nothing to be sorry about Dave :thumbsup:

Theres some fairly ignorant comments in this thread regarding
understanding mental health issues .

[dugnsuz]

...and some fairly understanding/well-intentioned comments too surely?
I think this thread has gone well off topic considering it started as a comment on the newly emerging litigious pitfalls of social networking sites .
Doug

[troypiggo]

Totally agree with Humayun and the Davids' comments, don't get me wrong. I have close family members that suffer from it and know what a terrible illness it is. But also agree with the comments about the insurance companies would do more than just base a case on that one photo. They're not that dumb. My view on the article is that the media latched onto the more sensational part of the story and the part about the rest of their background check has been skimmed over.

I'd also like to add a story from my company and about facebook, but not related to depression. I'll be careful about my wording here. Myself and my business partner are interviewing for a couple of new staff at the moment. Unbeknown to me, after one interview of a candidate that I was extremely happy with and was going to recommend making an offer to, our admin jumped on facebook to search out this candidate's profile/background. I was shocked. This is not our company's policy, I did not ask for it to be done, and would have stopped it before it was done if I'd known about it beforehand.

The candidate's FB page had maybe a dozen photos there. All were normal photos you'd expect to see on a FB page. Having fun, with friends etc. Heck, I have (or rather, had) photos on my FB page worse than those. But there was one photo with this candidate in a not-too-flattering pose with a cigarette in the mouth. Guess which photo the admin printed out and handed to me.

The photo was thrown in the bin and not considered. The admin was asked why this was even carried out without instruction. We've made an offer on that candidate and they've accepted. So it all ended happily in that case.

But the point is, what if we weren't that open-minded. This person could have shot him/her self in the foot by doing nothing more than having a FB page with some photos on it.

First thing I did was go through my FB photos, even ones where I'd been "tagged" from other people's photos at parties where I'd had a few to drink and the photo didn't look professional. I'm seriously considering closing my FB account after only being on it for a couple of months. Not just because of this, but it certainly could be the straw that broke the camel's back.

So my advice is, be careful of what photos you put there, even the ones where friends have tagged you (you can disallow the tagging BTW), and think before you click "post" or "send" on anything you post on the internet in general. Make sure you would stand behind what you are saying, no matter who reads it. You just don't know who is watching/reading.

[Louwai]

I don't understand how this insurance company saw photos of this woman on Facebook??
Facebook is not just open to anyone. The individual must allow "access" to heir information. Only then can others see the individuals information & photos.

Unless there is a hacker involved. BUT, if the insurance company used a hacker, they're in the poo too.......

[troypiggo]

Bryan, read my post above yours. You can see photos. Not sure if it was allowed by the user or if it's the default.

[Kal]

This is my facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/andrew.bundschuh) that is public.

You can see my profile pic, my friends, and the groups I am members of. While you can't see any tagged pics of me, I guess I'd still have to be careful of my profile pic and my groups I am a member of.

[dpastern]

I get what you mean, the others haven't. If you do not have an account on facebook, you *cannot* see any information about anyone. I don't think even Google caches it.

So, given that, it means that the insurance company has a facebook account, which it uses to track down people with. I personally find this offensive. In the US, I doubt any of this information contained in facebook would be admissable as it would be self incriminating.

Dave

[troypiggo]

Read my post with the story. You can. Maybe only in specific circumstances. Maybe only if the user has disabled some of the FB default security measures, not sure. But we saw photos and this person wasn't a "friend" even, just another FB user.

[dpastern]

yeah but if you were logged into facebook, yes. Log out of facebook and try it.

Dave

[PCH]

Well I'm sure the Poster knows we aren't all experts in Mental Health issues, unlike yourself I gather, and yet he has sought the advice and suggestions of the people in this forum in general. I don't imagine for one moment he meant only expert opinions were to be offered - otherwise he'd have PM'd you direct :lol:

[Louwai]

Troy,
For "anyone" to see FB photos, the owner of the photos must "allow" people to see them.
In the security settings there are options of for allowing access to photos & other FB page content.
In general they are;
Public;
Friends,
Friends of Friends,
Just me;

It doesn't matter if the "searcher" has an FB account or not. They have to be given "access" by the photo owner.
As noted in other posts, in a general FB search you will only see a Profile Pic of the person & some of their friends.

For your employee to have been able to see the candidates photos, the candidate must have had the security set to "Public", otherwise you would not have been able to see them.

Similarly, if you "block" another user of FB, they disapear completely from your activities. Even if you have mutual friends with the blocked person, when you look at any of the mutual friends info (FB page, their friends list, their photos, etc) the blocked person will not appear to you at all.

I feel that FB is reeeeasonbly safe, as long as one understands & correctly sets the security allocations.

B