Be Careful Of What You Post – How Social Media May Become A Vital Tool For the Social Security Administration

I won’t beat around the bush. I have never understood the social media phenomenon. I understand how social media is a valuable tool to promote businesses, but I have never understood why people feel the need to post simple daily occurrences to friends and family, or even worse, to complete strangers. I doubt my friends or family want to see a post of me getting a coffee or going to the gym. At least, I hope they have more fulfilling lives than that!

Social media has been around long enough, that the pitfalls of its overuse are finally coming to light. Besides the fact that it is creating a generation of zombie-like children who cannot separate themselves from their screens, social media overuse raises more serious concerns than the potential for an apocalypse instigated by these zombie-like children we are raising. Cyberbullying and privacy protections are two of the common issues that have arisen with the advent of the social media overuse.  After all, people do not always think about the consequences of what they post.

 The government has gotten hip to the fact that we live in a world that loves to overshare personal information and they plan to take advantage of people’s voyeuristic tendencies. The Trump administration, along with Social Security, are looking to expand its social media networks to identify fraud being committed by Social Security disability claimants and recipients. Thus, the photos of your family vacation to Disney, photos of you hiking with your pup, or whatever else you deem worthy of a Facebook post, may soon be perused by the Social Security Administration and used to evaluate whether or not you have a legitimate disability claim.  You post it – it is fair game for the government to consider. Will the government potentially misconstrue some of the photos? Absolutely! It is the Federal government after all. We all know it hardly operates like a well-oiled machine when it comes to fairness or accuracy.

To be honest, I have already been checking out social media accounts from potential leads prior to retaining a claimant. I understand why the Administration wants to utilize this tool, as I have been shocked with some of the information that I have found. A gentleman with a neuromuscular condition wanted to retain my services. I declined after I discovered a Strava account showing he was still riding his bike upwards of 300 to 400 miles a week in spite of the fact that he had told me that he spent most of the day lying down. I confronted him on my Nancy Drew find and he was shocked that I was able to access this information, but he was not ashamed that he was hoping to dupe the system.

I will not represent a claimant who I do not feel is disabled and I have no problem with the government taking advantage of technology that may help to ferret out fraud. You want to post aspects of your private life in a public setting, have at it, but understand it can be used to hurt you (unless your last name is Kardashian – then social media may just turn you into a billionaire, but there are exceptions to every rule J).  

There is a simple moral to the story, folks. Edit yourself and stop oversharing personal information on the web or deal with the consequences of opening yourself up to strangers with ill intent and government agencies looking to authenticate credibility.  

 Got a question about SSDI or SSI that you need us to answer? Please check out our website at www.westcoastdisability.com . We try to provide you with helpful information on our website that will allow you to successfully navigate the Social Security Disability process. Also, feel free to email me your questions at megan@westcoastdisability.com or call me at (800) 459-3017 x 103.