Does an insured have some rights to privacy?
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Does an insured have some rights to privacy?
I recently opened a policy for renters insurance, and received a call from my agent stating I couldn’t be insured because of an open homeowners claim. This claim they are speaking of was denied because I had nothing but problems with the company and they were doing everything they could to deny me any compensation. But anyway, this company gave my new insurer all of my file information and told them not to insure me. Is this legal? They gave them my list of loss and are trying to get my new insurer to give them my new personal information.
Asked on June 14, 2011 under Insurance Law, Indiana
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
There is no right to privacy in the information you describe, such as list of your losses or dealings with an insurer. As a general matter, there is no right to keep one's commercial dealings private. Certain information is protected, such as much medical or health information; it may also be improper to disclose certain identifying information (e.g. a social security number) to random third parties (e.g. a company's HR department can't give employee A's SSN to employee B), but there is no reasonable or general privacy expectation in the information you describe. Indeed, arguably, your own failure to voluntarily disclose your claims history--as least any part of it which happened to have been called for on the renter's insurance application--would itself be actionable.
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