Is Your Disability Insurer Watching You?

When you file a disability claim with your insurance company requesting that it pay you monthly disability benefits, it will take all necessary steps to try to disprove your claim. If, for example, you assert that you cannot work due to sickness or injury that causes your inability to work in your occupation or any other occupation, the insurance company may try to show that this is not the case because of the activities you engage in regularly. To do that, the insurance company may engage in surveillance tactics without your knowledge to watch your daily activities.

Insurers who conduct surveillance do not automatically engage in bad-faith conduct. They have a right to protect their bottom line and shareholders by conducting reasonable investigation of claims. Nonetheless, it is important to understand what tactics the insurance company might use and how to protect your rights and your claim.

Physical Surveillance by an Investigator

Disability insurers normally hire undercover private investigators who film you during the day and night. These individuals must adhere to privacy laws, which means they cannot take videos or pictures of you at certain times and in certain locations, such as inside your home, without your permission. However, they can generally capture video and photographs of you outside or in public, and they can record their own observations about what you do and when you do it. Video surveillance is conducted mostly at and around your home and will include your travel to locations near your home when you travel away from it.

Surveillance and Invited Investigations at Your Home

Insurers often conduct surveillance of your home and sometimes they set up a visit to your home to ask you questions. If you invite this person into your home, they have access to your private areas that can be seen from the area in which you invited them. Anything they note while inside the home can be documented for use in an insurance case.

This may not seem like it is very important, but something the representative sees in or around your home while he or she is there might call into question your entire disability claim. For instance, if you are the only person who lives in the home and you have claimed that you cannot work due to physical disabilities and limited mobility, the insurance company might question why its representative saw a mountain bike that seemed recently used in your home.

Video Evidence Can Be Damning to Your Claim or It Can Assist in Proving It

Insurance companies can and often do use video evidence from surveillance as evidence against your case or claim, especially if the matter goes to court. The insurance company might try to gather video footage from traffic cameras or other sources that show you doing things that seem to indicate you would have no trouble working or that your disability or injury is not as serious as you claim. In some cases, insurance companies might try to subpoena video evidence from other cameras, including personal cell phones.

Social Media Investigations

If you use or own social media accounts, these can and will be investigated by your disability insurer to determine if anything you post (whether written or photographic) is inconsistent with your disability claim and the representations you make about your claim. Your own Facebook, Instagram, X, or TikTok account could give your insurance company evidence they might use against you. Some insurance companies engage in social media investigations, which means they hire trained professionals to monitor your accounts.

This is an important consideration, as you must be careful what you share online. You cannot just ensure you keep your photographs and other information to “friends only,” either, as nothing on the internet is completely private.

Consider a hypothetical case where a disability claimant is dealing with extreme back pain and cannot work. However, through the use of medication, days of rest before and after, and help from others, she is able to attend an important family event, where she is seen walking, bending and sitting without any noticeable pain. A disability insurer might try to use pictures and videos to deny your claim, though the pictures do not tell the entire story of what those few hours might have cost the individual after the event is over.

If you use social media platforms, you may also want to select settings that keep people from tagging you in pictures and posts. This helps reduce the chance that others might add information or images to your profile that are damaging to your case. McKennon Law Group PC believes that these types of investigations are so important that it provides all of its disability clients with a Social Media Questionnaire and Warnings document they are required to complete.

Background Checks and General Research

Insurance companies also conduct background checks and research into your life before and after any injury or disability. Investigators may look for information about your previous jobs, where you have lived in the past, who you have lived with, and what your interests and hobbies are. All of this information can inform the rest of their research or the strategy they take in surveilling you in the future.

For example, if background research shows that someone was an avid hunter or hiker, investigators may be on the lookout for evidence that the individual is engaging in these activities despite their claimed disability.

How a Disability Lawyer Can Help

Knowing that an insurance company or investigator might be watching you—literally and figuratively—can be stressful. That is a stress you certainly do not need to pile on in an already stressful time, but it is important to understand what actions might weaken your case and how to protect your rights, privacy, and case.

An experienced disability attorney can help with all of that. At McKennon Law Group, PC, we work hard to protect our clients from bad-faith insurance actions. We also provide guidance throughout your claim and case process so you can live more confidently knowing you are working in the best interests of your case.