Report: Social Security May Begin Snooping Through Facebook Posts To Evaluate Claims

These days, just about everyone knows Facebook wants to collect our personal data. But the social media giant isn’t the only entity using the Internet to learn more about you. Law enforcement officials, prospective employers, insurance companies and more have all taken advantage of people’s publicly-posted information. And now, according to a recent report from CBS News, the Social Security Administration may start screening Facebook and Instagram posts to evaluate disability claims.

This move isn’t exactly surprising; digital snooping has rapidly become an accepted and expected part of our daily lives. However, experts still caution that this could have major privacy ramifications. After all, social media is not always an accurate representation of a user’s real life.

“You can’t take someone’s Facebook or other social media posts at absolute face value,” consumer privacy expert Jennifer King told CBS News. “They present an extremely narrow slice of someone’s life.”

For instance, disability lawyer Paul Young told CBS News about a client who had his Facebook photos used against him at a disability hearing. The photos depicted him going for a hike. However, they did not show was that he was bedridden for three days afterward.

As always, the moral of the story is to be careful what you post on Facebook. The content you share may seem harmless in the moment, but you never know who could scoop it up and use it against you later.




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