Is anyone able to help me trace a e-mail ?

[Skuzzy]

It seems to be a race as to who can out-suck the other as both sides appear to be getting screwed.  Although the insurance companies do seem to have a healthy amount of capital to work with.

[CAP1]

Sucky clients + Sucky insurance companies = Sucky System?   

nah......just sucky people. 

[wgmount]

deleted my facebook profile a long time ago. And never posted pictures or anything personal.

http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/11/creepy-insurance-company-pulls-coverage-due-to-facebook-pics.ars

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/7269543/Using-Facebook-or-Twitter-could-raise-your-insurance-premiums-by-10pc.html

[maddafinga]

ok, but what specifically?

Well, the most currently obvious thing in this particular thread, outside of people's anecdotes of problems with the industry, is Skuzzie's post and linked to article about raising the rates of Facebook users.  I'm certain that if I went looking I could come up with literally thousands of news articles detailing bad policies designed only to reap profit and not to actually protect or to pay out.  You, me, and everybody else sees them every day.  Any random person  you might stop and ask will have a story.  (And yes, I know that's confirmation bias, the stories of good policies and good payouts get forgotten.)  

[Skuzzy]

deleted my facebook profile a long time ago. And never posted pictures or anything personal.

http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/11/creepy-insurance-company-pulls-coverage-due-to-facebook-pics.ars

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/insurance/7269543/Using-Facebook-or-Twitter-could-raise-your-insurance-premiums-by-10pc.html

Do they really delete it, or do they just delete the interface to it?  Makes it really easy to sell the information they have collected from you if they only delete the interface.  Just saying.

[RTHolmes]

if rates are higher for facebook users its most likely because the risk is worse. rates are predominantly reactive - they reflect the data coming from actuaries. like I said the insurance market is fiercely competitive, noone wants to put up their rates because they lose market share and profitability.

it took 5 years and a lawsuit to get the kids insurance company to fix her car.

completely unacceptable, claim settlement is a personal bugbear of mine. interestingly our own data shows settlement delays are caused by: 3rd parties, the insured themselves, the insurer (in that order.)

[CAP1]

if rates are higher for facebook users its most likely because the risk is worse. rates are predominantly reactive - they reflect the data coming from actuaries. like I said the insurance market is fiercely competitive, noone wants to put up their rates because they lose market share and profitability.


completely unacceptable, claim settlement is a personal bugbear of mine. interestingly our own data shows settlement delays are caused by: 3rd parties, the insured themselves, the insurer (in that order.)

then why are my rates high? i've not had an "at fault accident since i was 24....i'm 47 now. no tickets, no notghing.

[maddafinga]

if rates are higher for facebook users its most likely because the risk is worse. rates are predominantly reactive - they reflect the data coming from actuaries. like I said the insurance market is fiercely competitive, noone wants to put up their rates because they lose market share and profitability.

I would agree with that statement if there wasn't collusion at some level, which there obviously is, otherwise there wouldn't be industrywide changes such as that implemented.  Just out of curiosity, how could being a facebook user possibly increase your risk to the point that your home insurance rates increase?   If you're going to say increased chance of burglary, I'd be interested to see some statistics on that, because is sounds very highly implausible to me.  I don't have stats, but I'd be willing to bet that nearly every robbery is unplanned and an attempt to get money or drugs or both.  I just don't see thieves checking facebook to see which house might have good stuff or might possibly be out of town.  It's possible, it just seems very very highly unlikely.  

I suspect that it's much more likely that someone came up with an idea to increase the profit margin with no extra loss potential.  

Like I say, they're just playing under the rules that they're given, I don't even blame them.  I just think that it's time that the rules be changed to level the playing field.  

I'm not against companies making profits either, not at all.  In fact, I'm all for it.

What I am against however, is a company exploiting rules and operating is a slightly shady fashion in order to bring in an egregious profit, when they could make a nice and reasonable profit by operating in a completely fair manner.   It's not even just the insurance industry either, so I'm not just picking on you guys.  At some point there has been a shift.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABKLirW24LE

[texasmom]

Do they really delete it, or do they just delete the interface to it?  Makes it really easy to sell the information they have collected from you if they only delete the interface.  Just saying.

When you "delete" it, that just means  you don't access the existing page anymore.  Just like a website without visitors. It's not going anywhere - you just don't visit it any longer.

[wgmount]

Do they really delete it, or do they just delete the interface to it?  Makes it really easy to sell the information they have collected from you if they only delete the interface.  Just saying.

Well it took 14 days but they said the account was deleted. What they did in that 14 days and why it took so long I have no idea. Probably was a very bad idea even to sign up for something like that. Live and learn I guess.

[wgmount]

From the Facebook FAQ

If you deactivate your account, your profile and all information associated with it are immediately made inaccessible to other Facebook users. What this means is that you effectively disappear from the Facebook service. However, we do save your profile information (friends, photos, interests, etc.), so if you want to reactivate at some point, your account will look just the way it did when you deactivated. Many users deactivate  their accounts for temporary reasons and expect their information to be there when they return to the service.

If you permanently delete your account, all personally identifiable information associated with your account will be purged from our database. This includes information like your name, email address, mailing address, and IM screen name. Copies of some material (photos, notes, etc.) may remain in our servers for technical reasons, but this material is disassociated from any personal identifiers and completely inaccessible to other users. Facebook also does not use content associated with accounts that have been deactivated or deleted.



Why they keep photos and notes for technical reasons would be beyond me. Maybe they don't have the means or are just too lazy to remove that. Like I said I never did the photo/note stuff. Was just looking for old friends from school.

[texasmom]

My husband "deleted" his FB account. He's still on my list of friends, and I can access his newsreel anytime I want - it's just not showing any new posts since the time he "deleted" it.  I wonder if that delete transaction wasn't completed.

[Penguin]

wow I didnt realise we had so many marxists around here, apparently offering goods or services for profit is now evil!

what exactly is "wrong" and needs "cracking down on"?

Whoa, whoa, obvious misquote there.  Look at the end of the sentence!  Are you being thick on purpose?  I said that cracking down on these people would cause many problems!

Again, you are taking me very far out of context.  Perhaps "what they are doing" is vague.  I was attempting to say that really delving into somebody's personal life is wrong, and that it seems like you're ticking people off to make a quick buck. 

-Penguin

[Dadsguns]

There is an article that was out just a few months ago about Military members having a FB account and how it can affect your TS and above security clearance if you have one.  Just not worth jeopardizing your clearance to me and not only that if you never filled out an SF-86 form, its something of a task to say the least.

This is a similar article.  http://www.scribd.com/doc/22482193/Social-Sites-Risk-Security-Clearance

Just another info gathering machine for the corporations or anyone for that matter to exploit.

[68ZooM]

then why are my rates high? i've not had an "at fault accident since i was 24....i'm 47 now. no tickets, no notghing.

Some states allow insurance companies to use your credit score on determining an insurance policy, in oregon its allowed, 4 years ago my credit score was  550/600, paying $89 a month full coverage for one truck, today after really working to improve my credit score i pay 46 a month for 2 trucks and 1 boat, but my credit score is now mid 800's