Watch What You Facebook Woman Loses Medical Insurance Over Facebook Pictures

In the new social media era we live in, people are always flooded with
warnings about what they post on the internet. MTV is filled with public
service adverts warning young women about the dangers of sending
revealing pictures and graduating high school students are warned about
how pictures on their Myspace of them lighting up marijuana can affect
their future job searches. But a 29-year-old woman in Canada has lost
her medical benefits because of some untimely Facebook pictures.
Nathalie Blanchard, a 29-year-old IBM employee hailing from Bromont,
Quebec, Canada has been on sick leave from her job after she
wasย diagnosedย with 'major depression'. She was on leave from her
position for over a year and a half, as she received sick leave
employement checks from 'Manulife', the insurance provider.
Then, the checks stopped coming this fall. When Blanchard called the
insurance company, they told her that her Facebook pictures told her she
was well enough to return to work, she told the CBC.
The insurance agent was even able to describe exact pictures from
Blanchard's Facebook profile, reportedly ones of her having fun at a bar
and another of her on a sunny beach somewhere tropical.
Blanchard's reply is that her doctor advised her to get out and have fun
as she tried to cope with her depression. She is also concerned how
Manulife got access to her Facebook pictures since her profile is set to
private. Ms. Blanchard obviously doesn't know that any Facebook picture
can be viewed by anybody, if they sent the direct URL to view the picture.
When the CBC contacted Manulife, the insurance provider, they said they
would never cancel benefits based on just a few apt Facebook pictures,
but they did confirm that they use Facebook as a source of investigating
insurance fraud.
Ms. Blanchard has hired a lawyer and appears to be preparing to press
legal action against the insurance company. She claims to have lost
thousands of dollars since Manulife canceled her benefits.