If you’re on Facebook and you’re a young driver, watch out. Your social media updates will soon impact the cost of your car insurance.
Admiral Car Insurance will soon build a “reputational record” of new drivers by analysing your Facebook page, and will reward more conscientious and organised drivers with cheaper insurance based on an algorithm which looks at your writing style and whether you’re using calendars or accounting apps.
The insurer intends to use this new system because first time drivers have no claim or driving history to determine risk. The company already uses monitoring devices to track driving style in an attempt to reward more careful drivers.
The Admiral system will examine posts and likes, but won’t yet examine your photos. If you’re writing succinct posts, arranging to meet friends at a specific location and time, and using lists, it will make your insurance cheaper. If you’re more flighty and carefree, preferring to add lots of exclamation marks and words like “always” or “never”, it’ll count against you.
Admiral “firstcarquote” will launch soon and will offer discounts up to £350 a year. Dan Mines, who led the project for Admiral, told us..
It is incredibly transparent. If you don’t want to use it in a quote then you don’t have to. We are doing our best to build a product that allows young people to identify themselves as safe drivers.
Other social media sites could be on the horizon. Hopefully it won’t just be a way to get a few offers and have you following the company on Facebook. After all, you could just create a fake page and put the right words into your posts.
Update – Facebook has blocked this planned technology, stating that..
Protecting the privacy of the people on Facebook is of utmost importance to us. We have clear guidelines that prevent information being obtained from Facebook from being used to make decisions about eligibility.
Admiral now plan to launch a system with “reduced functionality”.