Bates, John (2013) ‘Keeping your friends close … and enemies closer?' Probing the social media space in insurance fraud investigations. In: ‘Changing notions of privacy’: The Fifth Northumbria Information Rights Conference’, Northumbria University, 1 May 2013, 1 May 2013, Northern Design Centre. (Unpublished)
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Fraudulent insurance claims by policyholders and third parties are alleged to cost some £2.1billion annually, adding some £50 to each policyholder's average annual costs. In their continuing fight against fraud, insurers increasingly use of a potent investigative weapon: the forensic analysis of a claimant’s social media footprint. This is a space inhabited by claimants with an expectation of privacy. The encroachment into this territory by investigation tactics can lead to tensions between a claimant’s expectation of privacy and a defendant/insurer’s access to justice. It may also engage non-participants to beyond a claimant’s private law claim for damages: investigators may 'friend' the claimant or a member of the claimant’s social network, joining groups and making connections, probing for a nexus between potential co-conspirators. Ethical and professional conduct issues arise as a result. The fruits of investigations may be shared with law enforcement agencies, or used by insurers in asking civil courts in compensation litigation to visit sanctions, including imprisonment, for civil contempt of court established against litigants proved to be dishonest using social media evidence, contrasted with their 'statements of truth'.
This paper aims to explore some of the tensions between private and public law processes in this area, in the civil dispute resolution process and domestic professional regulation and ethical behaviours.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | M100 Law by area M200 Law by Topic |
| Department: | Faculties > Business and Law > Northumbria Law School |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | John Bates |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Feb 2016 11:09 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Oct 2019 22:56 |
| URI: | http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/25962 |
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