Bell caves to privacy concerns over targeted ads
Federal watchdog rules program telecom giant used to mine data violated rights of customers
OTTAWA— The federal privacy watchdog says a Bell Canada advertising program that tracks customers’ clicks, calls and television binges violated Canadians’ privacy rights.
Bell Canada agreed to change its Relevant Advertising Program after federal Privacy Commissioner Daniel Therrien publicly recommended the program track only customers who explicitly optin to the program.
The telecom giant initially refused Therrien’s recommendation, setting the stage for a federal court battle between the privacy watchdog and one of Canada’s largest companies.
But Bell abruptly reversed its position, hours after Therrien released his report publicly Tuesday.
“Bell will abide by the privacy commission’s (sic) decision including the opt-in approach,” Bell spokesman Jason Laszlo said in a statement.
“We’re dedicated to protecting customer privacy and thank the commission (sic) for clarifying the rules.”
Bell revealed the Relevant Advertising Program (RAP) in August 2013. RAP included demographic and location information, service usage, specific websites visited — even what apps customers have on their mobile devices.
For instance, if you’re an Englishspeaking female Toronto resident between the ages of 24 and 29, frequently visit video game websites, and routinely search for Jays tickets, Bell would match advertisers to your “customer profile.”
While advertisers do not obtain the information directly, Therrien’s office found that the profiles included so much sensitive data that Bell must obtain express consent from each individual user.
“Bell already charges its consumers a significant amount to deliver (telecom) service. We think that consumers should have a say in whether Bell can generate additional revenues with the personal information of consumers,” Therrien said in an interview Tuesday.
“We have concluded that Bell does not transfer, does not share that personal information with advertisers, but it is nevertheless using that very important, sensitive information such as (visited websites) to build these profiles.”
A number of websites already use targeted advertising, including Google and Facebook. Mirko Bibic, an executive vice president with Bell, told a Senate committee in 2014 the company was simply trying to adapt to a changing business landscape.
“We are by no means the first to launch initiatives designed to deliver more relevant ads. Formidable global competitors are doing it right now the world over, including in Canada,” Bibic said last April.
“We have been as transparent and more transparent, in some cases, than some of our competitors.”
But those ad trackers can be blocked with free software, and Internet users can take measures to protect their privacy, or simply not use the free service.
Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa professor specializing in Internet and privacy issues, said it’s different when an Internet service provider is doing the targeting.
“What makes Bell rather exceptional, of course, is that they have a commercial relationship with users that extends far beyond, frankly, what most Internet companies would typically have,” said Geist, who also writes a column for the Star.
“Even more, in the case of a company like Google, that’s purely opt-in. Google doesn’t use your information, doesn’t even identify who you are, unless you log in and allow the company to do that. In Bell’s case, they’re taking the position that all this information that’s collected . . . that’s required if you’re going to be a customer, they can use that unless you opt out.”
Laszlo, the Bell spokesperson, said the rules the commissioner laid out for the telecom should extend to companies like Facebook and Google. The telecom eventually agreed to all of Therrien’s recommendations, including expressly forbidding advertisers from using cookies and device fingerprints to identify individual users, excluding credit score information from its program, and removing Bell’s own electronics store, The Source, from the companies that could gain access to the data.
Therrien said his office will be reaching out to other companies, including other telecommunications companies, who are considering similar behavioural targeting ad programs.
“We think that consumers should have a say in whether Bell can generate additional revenues with the personal information of consumers.” DANIEL THERRIEN PRIVACY COMMISSIONER