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By Jeffrey N. Rosenthal/The Legal Intelligencer

By now it should go without saying: Be careful what you post on social networking sites. For a lot of reasons.

But here's yet another reason to be conscious of your online presence: Insurance companies are beginning to check social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to determine if you are a coverage risk. In fact, you may even have a "social media score" to prove it.

And, just like your credit score, your social media score can impact what you qualify for and affect how much you pay for coverage. Unlike a credit score, it is hard to say exactly what goes into a social media score -- or if existing federal laws provide sufficient oversight.

Companies have always been interested in who their customers are, and the Internet makes it easier to obtain that information. British Airways tries to surprise its passengers with greetings and personal touches based on Googled information; high-end restaurants commonly search their bookings online to see who is coming in.

But it may come as a surprise to learn that insurance companies surf social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to get the scoop on their customers, or pay third-party vendors to snoop for them.

At least one Canadian insurance company, Manulife Financial, has confirmed that it uses Facebook to investigate clients. A notable example involved a Quebec woman on long-term leave who had her benefits cut after her employer's insurance company, Manulife, found potentially contradictory photos posted on Facebook, according to a 2009 article by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Nathalie Blanchard, 29, had been on leave suffering from major depression for a year when her sick-leave benefits were discontinued. When called for an explanation, her insurance agent described several pictures she posted on Facebook -- including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar, at her birthday party and at the beach.

In response, Ms. Blanchard told CBC News that, on her doctor's advice, she had been trying to have fun as a way to forget her problems. She later initiated legal action to reinstate her benefits.

Such online tracking efforts used to take significant human energy, but not anymore. Today, vendors build online programs to automate this process using sophisticated data-mining tools.

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Do you know your social media score?

Summary: CEO of L99.com plans to sue social networking giant, claims he has video evidence of Facebook CEO attending lecture where he introduced feature.

The CEO of Chinese social network, L99.com, said he plans to sue Facebook, claiming that the latter's Timeline feature had infringed L99's intellectual property.

China Youth Daily reported Monday that Xiong Wanli claimed that L99.com in February 2008 had launched a feature that organized information chronologically.

Facebook's Timeline was first announced by its CEO Mark Zuckerberg last September, as part of wider changes to the site's features and appearance.

Xiong said the launch of L99's timeline feature was a matter of public record, adding he had video evidence that Zuckerberg attended a lecture he gave at Stanford University where he introduced the feature.

According to Xiong, United States-based lawyers have approached him to ask if L99 plans to sue Facebook.

Facebook's Timeline feature was also targeted in a previous lawsuit last year. Chicago-based Web site Timelines.com filed a trademark-infringement lawsuit against Facebook last September to stop it from implementing Timeline, arguing that its business could be "possibly eliminated" by the launch. Its request for a temporary restraining order was, however, rejected.

Jamie writes about technology, business and the most obvious intersection of the two that is software. Other variegated topics include--in one form or other--cloud, Web 2.0, apps, data, analytics, mobile, services, and the three Es: enterprises, executives and entrepreneurs. In a previous life, she was a writer covering a different but equally serious business called show business.

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Chinese social network claims IP theft over Facebook Timeline

Social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube have informed the government that inflammatory contents uploaded on their pages originated from Pakistan.

"The initial response from international social networking sites indicates that such contents have been hosted from outside the country and to a large extent from a neighbouring country (Pakistan)," Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEIT) said in a statement.

The response of these websites came after the government ordered ban of more than 250 pages charging that morphed images and videos were uploaded displaying alleged atrocities on Muslims. The government also said that these led to the fear psychosis among the people of the North-East and their mass exodus from different parts of the country.

However, one of the intermediary sites has conveyed to the DEIT that uploaders of the inflammatory and hateful contents were outside the jurisdiction of the country, "thereby implying that they are not obliged to take any constructive step to deal with it".

The DEIT said most of the contents were taken from events "unrelated to the incident occurred in Assam. Hosting of such morphed image and video led to a lot of inciting comments from users on the blogs...and circulation of hate SMSes".

"The DEIT has been working with international social networking sites on this issue. However, a lot more and quicker action is expected from them to address such a sensitive issue which concern restoring peace, harmony, public order and national security," the statement said.

It said proxy servers and virtual private network services which hide the user identity appear to have been used for uploading the content. The agencies are continuously monitoring hosting of such inflammatory and harmful content.

Copyright 2012 PTI. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of PTI content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent.

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Inflammatory content uploaded from Pak: Networking sites

By: Agence France-Presse August 20, 2012 11:42 PM

InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5

JOHANNESBURG -- The black farmworker convicted of killing Eugene Terre'Blanche believes the white supremacist leader gave him HIV, a psychologist said at his sentencing hearing Monday.

Chris Mahlangu was convicted in May of bludgeoning Terre'Blanche to death in his farmhouse outside the small town of Ventersdorp on April 3, 2010.

During the trial, the court found no proof that Terre'Blanche had raped Mahlangu.

But as his sentencing hearing got under way Monday, clinical psychologist Hein Swanepoel told the court that Mahlangu believes Terre'Blanche raped him and gave him HIV, the virus that could lead to AIDS, according to the Independent Online.

"Mr Mahlangu says he is HIV positive and suspects he must have been infected by the deceased," Swanepoel said, according to the website.

"He alleges he was raped by the deceased three to four times and did not resist because the deceased was a powerful man. He did inform police about the rape and for fraudulent reasons that was not included in the statement," Swanepoel said.

The psychologist was testifying in mitigation, as Mahlangu's defense tried to convince the court to hand down a milder sentence than the possible life in prison.

Judge John Horn had rejected Mahlangu's claims to have acted in self-defense and accepted the prosecution's argument the killing had been triggered by a fight over wages.

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South African white supremacist's killer believes victim gave him HIV

Chris Mahlangu, left, who was convicted of murdering South African white supremacist Eugene Terre'Blanche, says his victim raped him and infected him with HIV. Source: AP

THE black farmworker convicted of killing Eugene Terre'Blanche believes the South African white supremacist leader gave him HIV, a psychologist has said at his sentencing hearing.

Chris Mahlangu was convicted in May of bludgeoning Terre'Blanche to death in his farmhouse outside the small town of Ventersdorp on April 3, 2010.

During the trial, the court found no proof that Terre'Blanche had raped Mahlangu.

But as his sentencing hearing got under way, clinical psychologist Hein Swanepoel told the court that Mahlangu believes Terre'Blanche raped him and gave him HIV, the virus that could lead to AIDS, according to the Independent Online.

"Mr Mahlangu says he is HIV positive and suspects he must have been infected by the deceased," Mr Swanepoel said, according to the website.

"He alleges he was raped by the deceased three to four times and did not resist because the deceased was a powerful man. He did inform police about the rape and for fraudulent reasons that was not included in the statement," Mr Swanepoel said.

The psychologist was testifying in mitigation, as Mahlangu's defence tried to convince the court to hand down a milder sentence than the possible life in prison.

Judge John Horn had rejected Mahlangu's claims to have acted in self-defence and accepted the prosecution's argument that the killing had been triggered by a fight over wages.

Terre'Blanche, 69 when he was killed, co-founded the far-right Afrikaner Resistance Movement (AWB) which violently opposed South Africa's all-race democracy and campaigned for a self-governing white state.

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Killer believes extremist gave him HIV