Home Insurance Premiums May Rise For Twitter and Facebook Users

Users of social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook may face rises in their home insurance premiums, according to Confused.com.

The use of social media sites by criminals to determine when someone is not home, is increasing the risks of burglary and other crimes, and may increase home insurance premiums by up to 10%, Confused.com is warning.

Sites such as Foursquare allow its users to publicise where they are and therefore let potential criminals know that they are definitely not at home. As the use of location based web sites becomes more prevalent, the greater the risk for insurance providers, who will respond by increasing premiums for users of these sites.

“Criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their information gathering even using Google earth and street view to plan their burglaries with military precision. Insurance providers are starting to take this into account when they are assessing claims and we may in future see insurers declining claims if they believe the customer was negligent.”, advises Darren Black, head of home insurance at Confused.com.

Confused.com issued the following advice to consumers who use social media sites:

• Don’t follow people you don’t know on social networks and use block others from seeing your profile if you don’t know them
• Turn off location-based services on Twitter and Facebook unless you absolutely need to use them
• Never post your home address or other personal information such as your home phone number on social networking sites