Most people don't think twice before posting on social media. It's habit. You have a rough day, you vent. You finally feel good enough to get out of the house, you post a photo. It feels normal. But if you've been injured in an accident, that habit can cost you your case. It seems excessive, but insurance companies investigate everything when evaluating a claim.
Our legal expert, Ken Denos with with Acadia Law Group, says before anything else, go through every social media account you have — Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X, LinkedIn, all of it — and set everything to private. Not just your future posts. Your entire profile, your tagged photos, your check-ins, everything. Do it now, not after you talk to a lawyer. Not after the insurance company has reached out to you.
Be aware, "private" does not mean deleted. Do not go back and start scrubbing posts — that can actually create a separate legal problem called spoliation of evidence. Private means locked down so that the casual investigator scrolling through your page hits a wall. It is not a perfect shield, but it is the first and most basic layer of protection you have.
The safest thing you can do from the moment you are involved in an accident is to stop posting entirely until your case is resolved. That means no posts about the crash. No posts about your injuries. No posts about how you're feeling, how frustrated you are, or how much pain you're in. But here's where people get tripped up — it's not just the obvious stuff that hurts you.
And if you think, "I'll just post the good stuff and stay quiet about the bad" — that's actually worse. A feed full of happy, active moments while you're claiming serious injury is exactly the narrative an insurance company wants to build against you.
This is not paranoia. Insurance companies routinely and actively monitor the social media of claimants. They have adjusters and investigators whose job it is to build a file on you. They will look at your public profiles. They will check the profiles of your family members for tags and mentions. They will note timestamps, locations, and activity. They are doing this systematically, and they are good at it.
You can contact Acadia Law Group 24/7 by phone at 801-816-2525 or by visiting acadialawgroup.com.
