Life insurance companies have traditionally used physical exams and questionnaires to determine customers' premiums, but nowadays many are viewing social media posts as well. These social media posts may include customer tweets, pictures, videos, and likes$/$dislikes of other posts. There had been limited legal guidance on this matter until a $2019$ ruling by New York's Department of Financial Services $($NYFS$).$ The NYFS ruled that insurance companies operating in the state may legally use social media posts to determine customer risk propensity.

Insurers typically don't have their employees go through millions of social media posts. Instead, they use carefully crafted algorithms to browse the Internet for policyholders', or potential policyholders', posts. These algorithms speed up the processing of life insurance applications by automatically greenlighting applicants, allowing them to receive a policy without invasive medical tests or waiting weeks for a doctor's appointment.

Algorithms may help speed along the processing of insurance applications, but they can also be used to illegally discriminate against certain groups of people based on built$-$in biases$\mathrm{.}123$ For example, the MIT Technology Review found algorithmic bias in systems used to rank teachers and gender$-$biased models for natural language processing. The NYFS is trying to combat this by requiring insurers to monitor their algorithms for bias due to "race, color, creed, national origin, status as a victim of domestic violence, past lawful travel, or sexual orientation in any manner, or any other protected class."

This mandate may not be enough. For starters, many insurance companies legally refuse to share details of their social media algorithms with customers. Second, if the algorithms were shared with customers, how could they be interpreted by a lay person? Dr$.$ Jessica Baron, a tech ethics writer and reporter at TechEngage, says that $"$it will be very difficult for customers who are not well$-$versed in algorithmic bias to fight against unfair decisions made about their life insuranceremiums based on data they don't even realize they're giving away."

The Wall Street Journal has some advice for those who decide to share aspects of their lives online: "Don't post photos of yourself smoking on social$-$media sites. Do post photos of yourself running. Those who decide not to utilize social media are not in the clear either. Research presented by Forbes shows that information about a person can be constructed from the comments of as few as eight of their online friends.

If You Led an Insurance Company Based in New York, What Would You Do$?$

$1.$ Utilize information gathered from social media when making life insurance premium decisions. It is legal and may also benefit some applicants.

$2.$ Refuse to utilize information gathered from social media. It is an invasion of privacy and may lead to discrimination. $3.$ Invent other options and explain.