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A Facebook folly
A Canadian woman, who has been on sick leave from her job in IBM for the last year because of depression, said that she lost her insurance benefits after her agent found photos of her having fun on Facebook.
When Nathalie Blanchard, 29, asked her insurance agency Manulife, why she suddenly stopped receiving payments, the company said that she had posted several pictures on Facebook showing that she was enjoying herself. The photos showed her at a bar, celebrating her birthday and sun-bathing. Based on this, Manulife said that she was not depressed anymore.
Blanchard told Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) television that the insurance company insists “[she's] available to work, because of Facebook.”
However, Manulife said in a statement that “we would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based on information published on websites such as Facebook.”
The incident shows the increasingly prominent role that social networking sites like Facebook are playing in our daily life. Last week, a man in Dubai was charged in court of dishonoring his ex-employee on the site.
Has Facebook become more of a bane than a boon? Are we being judged more on the basis of what exists on our page than who we are?
Normally it’s hard to get Kipp out of the office. But if you promise computer games in a nicer office, we’ll probably bite.
Kipp was honoured to accept the invitation, which came via an unexpected email from princewaleed0001@breakthru.com.
A number of commentators are calling for the UAE to re-write its cheque law. Now a new campaign looks set to hammer the point home.
The RTA has announced that of the eight unopened stations on the Metro Red Line, not all will be opened as promised.
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so its totally upto each individual - how much they want to share about themselves with the rest of the world !
I'm sorry to say this, but it sounds like to me that this woman is just lazy. Anyone who really had a depression [or other mental] problem would NOT be posting photos on facebook, much less continuing to post photos on facebook. This whole "I have a depression problem" is just one that ANYONE can fake.
Now as for the argument of how facebook profiles should have been locked and private... there is NO such thing as keeping things "safe" and locked on the net. ANYTHING that gets posted or sent [yes that includes EMAIL] through the net STAYS on the net. I've known this simple FACT for years.
As for the insurance company being "in the wrong" to snoop and discontinue her benefits... I'm sorry, but they have every right to know if someone is handing them a line a sh!t just to get free money out of the deal. There ARE people out there who REALLY do need and deserve to have health insurance, but don't get it because of individuals like this woman who make it bad for everyone else. I commend the insurance company for buckling down and I wish that other leeching individuals would get caught and cut off too.
Bottom line: it doesn't pay to be a thief, liar, lazy, money moocher. Let this be a lesson for anyone who thinks it's ok to suck on the system while others pay their hard earned money for it. IBM would be wise to not allow the woman to come back to the job. Instead, they should tell her to take a hike, as this story I'm sure will have some sort of bad reflection on the corporation. If this woman is capable of going to a beach weekly and capable of going to night clubs to see male dancers, then she's most certainly capable of working a normal job like a normal human being.
Don't feel sorry for con artists. They're good at sucking people dry of their money.