MONTREAL, Canada - A 29-year-old woman has been stripped of her disability insurance after her insurance company saw pictures she uploaded to the popular social networking site, Facebook
Nathalie Blanchard of Montreal has been on disability leave from her job at IBM for nearly two years since she was diagnosed with major depression.
But she stopped receiving disability payments in the mail after her insurance company saw photos on her Facebook profile showing her smiling and having a good time. Because of those photos, her insurer told Nathalie she was OK to return to work since she didn't appear to be depressed in the photos.
Blanchard depends on her community of Facebook friends a lot these days.
In February 2008, she says after 10 years working at IBM, her life started to unravel.
"I suffered anxiety attacks, and depression. I couldn't work anymore," Blanchard said.
In fact, she says her doctor as well as the company's insurance psychiatrist ordered her to go on disability insurance. And that's what she's been living on until they cut her off last month. Blanchard says she phoned her insurance representative to find out why.
"She said she had taken my picture from my Facebook. And she said that I'm not sick," Blanchard said.
She says the representative referred to pictures at a Chippendale event at a local bar as well as comments she made about climbing a local mountain.
Her lawyer is Tom Lavin. He is preparing a suit against IBM as well as the insurance company.
"Because there are no precedents, it's a free-for-all right now, and probably there are no rules or boundaries," Lavin said.
Lavin says the insurance company says its decision is based on a psychiatric reevaluation, though Blanchard has not met with the psychiatrist.
Insurance companies make no secret that Facebook has become a tool for investigation.
"We cannot ignore it," Claude Distasio, of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, said. "Whatever the source of the information is, we cannot ignore it."
And so far the insurance company, according to Blanchard's lawyer, has not handed over its reevaluation report.
"I don't understand why I gave all my life to IBM to get what I get now," Blanchard said.
IBM has not commented on this case.
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