Early on this month Kevin Taylor was featured in Post Online as he shared his views on social media becoming a helping hand to the insurance industry.

In the article he talks about how insurers could use a prospective customers social media accounts as an aid to risk analysis. As the information has been willingly put on these accounts it is considered legally acceptable to use the information. This could potentially increase a quote price but could also make a quote less expensive if the customer is of a lower risk than expected.

There are many different elements that can be looked at when considering this as an option to help make a more appropriate quote. One way of analysing a person’s risk could be by looking at their friends on public social network profiles and checking the type of language they use. This can reveal some of their attitudes and their behaviour. Insurers would need to find a way of contextualising their findings, and would need to decide whether status updates made far in the past should be considered.

Another aspect Kevin talks about is the use of telematics and social media side by side. The telematics will tell you when a person is driving and the social media sites will tell you if they are tweeting or updating their status while still in the car.

By customers constantly updating their profiles on their location this could influence the price of a home insurance quote as a home with no one in it, that is constantly advertised, is appealing to thieves. Therefore this increases the risk of a claim on a home insurance policy and in turn a higher quote.

Kevin says, “There is no doubting that social media and evolving technology are opening new doors to help insurer’s judge risk and drive profitability.”

If you have a post online membership you can read the full article here.