Twitter Insurance?

Our Cousins Across the Pond© seem to have an affinity of late for interesting insurance concepts:

"Users of social networking websites could face higher insurance premiums because burglars are using them to 'shop' for victims' personal details."

Although approximately 40% of all Tweets (?) are "pointless babble," at least one UK insurer, Legal and General, is contemplating a Twitter surcharge as a result of increased claims that they believe are exacerbated by folks announcing to God and country that they're "on holiday" (BritSpeak for "on vacation").

Actually, this isn't so far out:

"A burglar might look out for alarms or security lighting on any pictures of the home, as well as any photos of pet dogs who might be guarding it."

If we're talking risk management - and we are - then it seems to me that L&G has a legitimate concern. The problem, though, is exactly how do they underwrite for this? Simply relying on folks to volunteer that they're on Twitter, or Facebook or some other social networking site doesn't seem particularly reliable to me. And there's this:

"Just because someone is burgled, you can't prove that it's down to details posted on Facebook."

Indeed.

[Hat Tip: Neal Boortz]