Many of us are enamored with social media. It is a wonderful way to communicate with those across the country, around the world or right around your block. It is a way to keep with touch with friends, acquaintances and even professional colleagues. However, in our world of ever increasing technology, there are ever increasing risks. We have seen time and time again on the nightly news reports stories of cyber crime, internet scams, child predators and the embarrassing things people post on the world-wide web. We often try to impart this knowledge to our children as their youthful indiscretions can come aback to haunt them as they start applying for jobs as employers regularly now google potential candidates. Websites such as MySpace, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, while entertaining and useful, can also put injured workers at risk. It is easy to forget that a photo posted on social media can come up on many internet searches. It is easy to forget that the internet is not part of the private sphere but is the public square. It is also easy to forget that anyone can create a profile and seek to join anyone else’s network of “friends” on one of these sites. That includes investigators who work for insurance companies and defendants attorneys.
By applying for benefits, you are stating that you are injured and are unable to work or only able to perform part-time or intermittent work. Information available on the internet that appears to contradict your application for benefits can result in your being denied benefits or even result in a fraud charge being leveled against you. This could be information about your professional or personal accomplishments, a home-based business, or even volunteer activities, which may be no longer current or may not accurately reflect your level of functioning since your injury. Those pictures of you on vacation in Jamaica doing the limbo might be entertaining but they could also put you at great risk if you are indicating a disability. These types of stories appear regularly in the news media. Furthermore, and even more importantly, recent court decisions around the nation and even in New York have ruled that plaintiffs may have to permit defendants access to their social networking sites and even their hard drives for analysis.
Therefore it is imperative that if you are applying for benefits based upon a disability be it workers’ compensation, social security disability or even for negligence to be cautious when posting anything about yourself on the internet. This includes photographs, statements, travel plans, and commentary about your own social activities. Furthermore, we cannot stress enough to take care when accepting new persons into your internet social networks. Make sure you actually know who you are opening up yourself to, for they may not be the person you think they are, and could be in the employ of an insurance carrier.
Finally, it is extremely important that all persons using social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace make sure that the privacy settings for their profiles are set to the maximum. On Facebook this should prevent a person’s profile from being found even if their name is searched. The bottom line is if you are disabled, you should never engage in any activity contrary to your injury as one funny moment in time on social media can impact you for your entire life.
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