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How your selfie could affect your insurance

Posted at 4:55 PM, May 19, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-19 19:55:17-04

Everyone is guilty of taking a selfie, but thanks to a new technology your selfie can showcase more than just a great hair day. A new technology from the company Lapetus in North Carolina cuts down the time you get life insurance.

Karl Ricanek created the technology called Chronos. Chronos uses facial analytics and biodemography to tell how fast or how well someone is aging. In order to be approved for a life insurance policy or know how much your policy will be, your insurance company must look at how you are aging. The faster you're aging, the bigger the risk you are for them to insure your life.

How it works is simple, you take a picture of yourself and upload it for your insurer to analyze your face. The Chronos technology will scan your facial lines, contours and dark spots to determine how well you are aging. Ricanek says, don't try and filter or Photoshop your selfie.

"We have technology that captures the image and scans it right away and we can verify whether or not it was altered by applying a filter or taking a picture of a picture."

 

Then in as little as 10 minutes, your insurance company will tell you whether you're approved for a policy or not. Ricanek says many insurance companies are testing the new technology and we could see it being used next year.