Insurance companies are increasingly relying on drone footage to search for reasons to cancel customers’ policies. These companies are equipped with drones, manned planes, and surveillance balloons to capture aerial images of homes. However, these images can sometimes be misleading or outdated, resulting in unjust policy cancellations.
One case reported by The Wall Street Journal involved Cindy Picos whose insurance provider used a drone to photograph her roof before canceling her policy. Despite an independent inspection revealing that her roof had another 10 years of life expectancy, the insurance company stuck to their decision based solely on the aerial photos. The article also highlighted other cases where insurance companies have terminated policies based on outdated or misrepresented images.
While the use of drones for aerial surveillance may seem like something out of a dystopian novel, insurance companies see it as a tool to monitor properties. The technology is not perfect, and there have been instances where policies were terminated based on outdated or misrepresented images. For example, a photo showing fallen tree limbs turned out to be just shadows. Nevertheless, the technology is advancing rapidly and soon properties could be under high-definition surveillance on a daily basis.
The use of drones for property inspections raises ethical concerns about privacy and the potential for discrimination against certain groups of people. As such, it is important that insurance companies are transparent about their use of this technology and ensure that they are not using it inappropriately or unfairly.
Overall, while the use of drones for property inspections may provide some benefits in terms of monitoring properties and identifying potential risks, it is important that insurance companies use this technology responsibly and ethically to avoid causing harm or unjustly denying coverage to customers.
