It’s no secret that insurance companies would do pretty much anything to detect fraud but now they seem to be crossing some legal lines as well.
If you’re in the US and look up to the sky not just for the eclipse, odds are you’ll see a flying object that’s spying on you on behalf of insurance companies.
A troubling report in Wall Street Journal reveals that, for US homeowners, there’s literally no hiding:
“ Nearly every building in the country is being photographed, often without the owner’s knowledge. Companies are deploying drones, manned airplanes and high-altitude balloons to take images of properties. No place is shielded: The industry-funded Geospatial Insurance Consortium has an airplane imagery program it says covers 99% of the U.S. population. The array of photos is being sorted by computer models to spy out underwriting no-nos, such as damaged roof shingles, yard debris, overhanging tree branches and undeclared swimming pools or trampolines. The red-flagged images are providing insurers with ammunition for nonrenewal notices nationwide.”
Worse off, the investigation reveals that insurers can deny claims based on those images, but can actually refuse to share them with homeowners.
Clearly, some privacy legislation is required…
Still, if you missed it, they already used something like this in France for tax-dodgers. The government actually scanned maps to look for unregistered pools a few years back.
Image by Public Co from Pixabay
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