Internet Liability Insurance, Cyber Liability Insurance, Privacy Insurance

There has been very little in the history of the world that has revolutionized the world so greatly and as quickly as the Internet. The Internet has allowed anyone and everyone with a computer to access information from anywhere in the world, and has allowed everyone to create their own content have it accessible to anyone in the world. In a perfect world, there would be no limitations on the greatness, which this could enable. Doctors, scientists, researchers, and philosophers from anywhere in the world has the ability to converse with colleagues on the other side of the world. Over our lifetime the world has become a lot smaller.

 
 

However, doctors and scientist striving to better the world are not the only ones with access. There are plenty of people on the Internet with malicious intent. Everyone has heard stories of hackers gaining access to different websites and obtaining private information, and holding companies hostage with their abilities.

 
 

The Internet has also created a whole new venue for companies and individuals to make careless, but costly mistakes. These mistakes when not made on the Internet like a "personal or advertising injury" have usually been covered by insurance in a Commercial General Liability Policy. However, many general liability insurance policies exclude a company's actions on the Internet.

 
 

Internet liability insurance covers very specific wrongful acts as defined by the policy forms:

 
 

·        Infringement or unauthorized use of any advertising material, copyright, slogan, trademark, ect through the internet.

 
 

·        Failure to protect private or confidential information of others from unauthorized access on or through the Internet.

 
 

·        Making known to any person or organization material that violates a person or organizations right to privacy or publicity right.

 
 

·         Plagiarism or unauthorized use of a literary or artistic format, character, or performance through the Internet.

 
 

·           Failure to prevent the transmission of a computer virus to authorized users of your website or any of your private communication networks such as customers, suppliers, or supporters, on or through the Internet.

 
 

Take a second to digest that last bullet point. As protection software advances as viruses advance, can you imagine that there may be an instance that a company could get sued for not properly updating their virus protection, thus causing everyone that legitimately uses the site to download a computer virus.  Is there anyway you can be 100% that a hacker will not install a virus on your website?

When purchasing this relatively new insurance product you must make sure of certain things. First, that your agent knows what he's talking about is getting you the correct coverage. Secondly, make sure that the territory definition is global. If it is not, what will protect you form someone in Indian or China accessing your site and bringing suit against you in the US?

 
 

Lastly, you need to make sure that the company that is providing your Internet liability insurance is adequate. You need know, how long have they been providing technology insurance? How long have they been in business? What is their A.M. Best rating? Are they admitted? These are all key questions to consider when purchasing Internet liability insurance. But do not let this scare you away from protecting your company's assets from this immerging threat.  You know that the Internet is dangerous, but it can be a great tool that can grow your company like the greats of Google, and Yahoo, just make sure your properly protected.

 
 

Contact Andrew Cohn from Wilson, Washburn & Forster Insurance in Miami, FL for a quote at alcohn@wwfins.com or (305) 666 - 6636 ext. 132

Understanding Workers Compensation Insurance

As an insurance agent I find that a lot of business owners are confused about how workers compensation insurance works. Workers Comp is a highly regulated insurance program which protects employees and employers in the event of work place injury. If an employee is hurt on the job, workers compensation will pay their medical expenses and up to 66% of their loss wages. If the worker dies because of a work related accident a death benefit will be paid to the beneficiaries.

So who needs to have workers comp? In the State of Florida, if you are a Construction Company you must have workers comp if you have one or more employee than is not an officer of the company working for you. In an industry other than construction if you have four or more full or part time employees you must have workers compensation, this is excluding officers of the corporation or partnership. If you are a farmer, and have five regular employees and/or twelve or more other workers for seasonal agriculture labor lasting thirty days or more, you must have workers comp.

Money can be saved for the company through the use of safety programs and drug free workplace programs. Another way for companies to get money back is through dividend programs. Many workers comp insurance companies offer a dividend program, which will give you money back at the end of the year based on your loss ratio. This is usually on a sliding scale and can be pretty significant. If you are currently not receiving a drug free work place credit, safety credit or a dividend you should contact your agent and see how you can. If you are not receiving a dividend, safety credit or drug free workplace credit and would like to save money on your insurance, please contact me, Andrew Cohn at Wilson, Washburn & Forster Insurance.

Cargo Insurance vs. Property Insurance

    In Florida, we live in paradise but we pay for it. One of the more literal ways we pay for is in the price of property insurance. The whole country is now aware of our property insurance problems. Homeowners Insurance gets the most attention, but business owners really see it in the property insurance rates for their buildings and business personal property. Last year I was in St. Paul, Minnesota for a seminar at Travelers Insurance for technology insurance. There were agents there from all over the country. One lady from Wisconsin was telling me that she was competing to write a large building and she received a $0.045 rate. What that means is that for every $100 of insured value, the insurance company is charging 4 ½ cents. At that same time I was seeing property rates come down to $3.00 in Miami from up as high as $4.00. Even our property rates excluding windstorm are higher than 4 ½ cents.

    In Miami we have to worry about the wind, the rain, the storm surge, but on a more constant basis we have to worry about all other perils. Maybe in Wisconsin when there's a fire, it's just a fire, but in Miami, a lot of times its Arson. We also have a lot more thefts, vandalisms, auto accidents, ect.

    So that is the back drop on why rates are so high in Miami. Now, what can you as a business owner do? If you're a wholesaler, distributor, exporter, importer or freight forwarder you can save a lot of money insuring your goods. The rates on insuring goods in warehouse are a lot less expensive than insuring stationary business personal property. You need to insure cargo, but you're probably paying for it through a freight forwarder or your distributor.

Insurance for Internet Dating and Social Networking

Countless numbers of people have found love, friendship, and business contacts through social networking and internet dating sites. However, we also hear of the horror stories involving people that are physically harmed. You, the owners of these very profitable websites, are constantly balancing the risk vs. the reward of operating your company.

Right now you are trying to mitigate your risk by making your site as safe as possible. This is a great thing, because no one wants your clients to get hurt more than you. Social media is not a zero sum game when we're talking about assault and battery. Your client loses and you lose. One person gets hurt and it could all be over. Can your company withstand a multimillion dollar lawsuit?

Well finally there is an insurance solution for internet dating and social networking websites. It comes in the form of an endorsement to some internet liability policies for contingent bodily injury coverage. Internet liability insurance is the policy that covers a company for their internet activities. For the most part this covers invasion of privacy and intellectual property infringement. For more about internet liability insurance please read my article titled, Insurance 2.0 in Website Magazine's Issue 11.

http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/articles/internet_liability_insurance.aspx

Many internet liability policies have many specific exclusions in there for bodily injury, property damage, violations of statutes and regulations, mass communications, and other hot-button items. But, some of these exclusions can be taken out my endorsement. You need to read your policy and discuss with your agent, the full list of exclusions and endorsements. The Contingent Bodily Injury Coverage Endorsement deletes the exclusion found in many policies for claims of bodily injury brought against the insured company. So what does this mean in real life?

XYZdating.com operates like many other dating website. Users post their profiles and can chat and meet up if they choose. Two users schedule a date. On the date there is a sexual assault. The criminal proceedings take place, but the victim also decides to launch a civil suit against XYZdating.com. XYZdating.com may or may not be found liable in the suit. However, even if they are not found liable, defending the suit could cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars. This endorsement provides the duty to defend and a sublimit for any reward settlement.

This is a very basic example but it could easily take place with dating websites, social networking or business networking websites. And the endorsement can be added to some internet liability policies. There are other very important endorsements and conditions that should be taken into consideration for social media website and dating websites. I hope to have future articles going over Intellectual Property Infringement, and how it relates to User generated content. Also making sure you have coverage for regulatory action including violations of local, state and federal privacy acts. As well as cyber extortion, crisis management and public relations expense, business income for network interruption and privacy liability including paper documents. For more information please contact me, Andrew Cohn at alcohn@wwfins.com .

 

Staying in Touch Emails

The saying "out of sight, out of mind" is very true for sales people. One simple, non-intrusive way to stay in touch with your contacts is by sending interesting articles. Recently, my friend David Sampedro mentioned in a networking meeting that he was speaking in Philadelphia to a group of Personal Injury attorneys about dog biting. The next day, I saw an article in The Insurance Journal about the amount of claims that result from dog bites. It seemed only natural for me to send him this article and he really appreciated it.

Sending an article, especially via email, is a very easy way to tell your clients, friends, and associates that you are thinking about them, and in turn, it makes them think about you.