So I’m trying to find myself some cryo insurance. I went to a State Farm guy today and he mentioned that they’d want a saliva sample. That’s fine; I asked for a list of all the things they’ll do with it. He didn’t have one on hand and sent me home promising to e-mail me the list.
Apparently the underwriting company will not provide this information except for the explicitly incomplete list I got from the insurance guy in the first place (HIV, liver and kidney function, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and “no genetic or DNA testing”).
Is it just me or is it outrageous that I can’t get this information? Can anyone tell me an agency that will give me this kind of thing when I ask?
Indeed, that is rather outrageous. It runs afoul of pretty much any current conception of information privacy; I’m pretty sure what they’re doing would be illegal in the EU, as long as saliva counts as personal information. It’s pretty standard anyway for anyone who’s collecting your personal information to tell you what it will and will not be used for.
It doesn’t seem outrageous to me. You are asking them to bet against your death. There are many ways to die and due to adverse selection potentially fatal conditions are likely to be over-represented in applicants for their policies. It doesn’t seem unreasonable for them to try and leave themselves as much leeway as possible in detecting attempted fraud. It’s just sound underwriting.
I don’t object to their wanting the sample. In fact, I can’t think of much I’d reasonably expect them to test for that would cause me not to give it to them. But I want them to tell me what it is for.
If they were explicit about exactly what tests they planned to do they would open themselves up to gaming. Better to be non-specific and reserve the freedom to adapt. For similar reasons bodies trying to prevent and detect doping in sports will generally not want to publicize exactly what tests they perform.
So I’m trying to find myself some cryo insurance. I went to a State Farm guy today and he mentioned that they’d want a saliva sample. That’s fine; I asked for a list of all the things they’ll do with it. He didn’t have one on hand and sent me home promising to e-mail me the list.
Apparently the underwriting company will not provide this information except for the explicitly incomplete list I got from the insurance guy in the first place (HIV, liver and kidney function, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and “no genetic or DNA testing”).
Is it just me or is it outrageous that I can’t get this information? Can anyone tell me an agency that will give me this kind of thing when I ask?
Indeed, that is rather outrageous. It runs afoul of pretty much any current conception of information privacy; I’m pretty sure what they’re doing would be illegal in the EU, as long as saliva counts as personal information. It’s pretty standard anyway for anyone who’s collecting your personal information to tell you what it will and will not be used for.
It doesn’t seem outrageous to me. You are asking them to bet against your death. There are many ways to die and due to adverse selection potentially fatal conditions are likely to be over-represented in applicants for their policies. It doesn’t seem unreasonable for them to try and leave themselves as much leeway as possible in detecting attempted fraud. It’s just sound underwriting.
I don’t object to their wanting the sample. In fact, I can’t think of much I’d reasonably expect them to test for that would cause me not to give it to them. But I want them to tell me what it is for.
If they were explicit about exactly what tests they planned to do they would open themselves up to gaming. Better to be non-specific and reserve the freedom to adapt. For similar reasons bodies trying to prevent and detect doping in sports will generally not want to publicize exactly what tests they perform.