Risky Online Behavior Exposes Many to Lawsuits
The Insurance Record - February 25, 2010
WARREN, N.J.—Nearly 30% of people have cleaned up their social networking profiles for job interviews, and the economic downturn has made them more cautious about postings on social media sites, according to a phone survey of 1,000 Americans sponsored by the Chubb Group of Ins. Cos.
More than one in four (27%) of respondents said they have posted a comment on a news site or blog. One third of 18- to 34-year-olds have posted a comment on news sites or blogs. And 37% of those respondents making $100,000 or more have posted a comment.
The survey results show that while some people are being cautious about putting personal information online, many are unaware of the liability exposures associated with posting comments to blogs or other Internet sites.
Shot in the Foot
“A foolish post or a tweet could cost you a job or even trigger a libel lawsuit,” cautions Christie Alderman, vice president of Chubb & Son and new product and services manager with Chubb Personal Insurance. “We all should think twice before posting any comment online.”
The survey also asked respondents about obtaining permission to share copyrighted online materials. Sixty percent of respondents said they rarely or never obtain permission to cut and paste articles, other information, or artwork from copyrighted websites before emailing them or printing them out and distributing them to others. One in four (25%) respondents said they always obtain permission.
Only 2% of respondents said they have lawyers review comments before posting them to their blogs.
Risk Issues
“This raises significant risk issues for the owner of the blog,” says Alderman. “There are different schools of thought with regard to allowing comments to be posted directly to the site versus reviewing comments before they are posted. The safest and most conservative approach is to require pre-registration before allowing comments and to preview the comments before they appear online. This may not be practical for everyone, but there are other ways to protect yourself.”
Forty-five percent of the respondents were members of one of the following social networking sites: Facebook (37%), MySpace (19%), LinkedIn (9%) and Twitter (6%). Nearly 60% of respondents earning $100,000 or more belonged to one of these sites.
The telephone survey of 1,000 Americans was conducted by Opinion Research Corp.
About Chubb
The member insurers of the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies form a multi-billion dollar organization providing property and casualty insurance for personal and commercial customers worldwide through 8,500 independent agents and brokers. Chubb’s global network includes branches and affiliates in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia.
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