Twenty-nine year old Nathalie Blanchard has been on long-term disability leave for 18 months because she was unable to do her job at IBM because of her depression.

She said that Manulife, her insurer, stopped paying her right after she had posted pictures of herself on beach vacations and at nightclubs to the social networking site.

Ms Blanchard said that Manulife told her these pictures were proof that she was no longer depressed.

In a statement sent to the media, Manulife said that it “would not deny or terminate a valid claim solely based on information published on websites such as Facebook,” but added that it does use Facebook to investigate clients.