IRDAI asks insurance firms to lay down social media norms

IRDAI has asked insurance companies to lay down social media guidelines for their employees to ensure that no unverified or confidential information relating to the organisation is disseminated to the public through these platforms.

An organisation’s reputation is closely linked to the behaviour of its employees, the IRDAI said, adding “Social media should be used in a way that adds value to the organisation’s business”.

The Information and Cyber Security Guidelines, which were issued by IRDAI to all insurers, have a specific section on ‘Acceptable usage of social media’ — which states that the employees should be refrained from disseminating any unverified and confidential information on “any Blogs/Chat forums/Discussion forums/Messenger sites/Social networking sites”.

Any information received, accessed or obtained by an employee, either in his/her official mail/personal mail/Media Forums or in any other manner, if proposed to be disseminated or shared in any Media Forum, should be forwarded to the Organisation’s Compliance team and corporate communication team for prior approval,” it said.