Class-action suit against Bell moves forward

Alleges telecom violated customers’ privacy with data collection program

OTTAWA— An Ontario court has cleared the way for a class-action lawsuit against Bell Canada over a controversial advertising program that tracked its customers’ internet, phone and television habits.

On Monday, the Ontario Superior Court certified the classaction lawsuit against Bell over its now-discontinued “Relevant Advertising Program” (RAP). The program tracked Bell customers’ activities to build detailed profiles for thirdparty advertisers.

RAP was announced in 2013 and discontinued in 2015, although Bell says the program was never launched.

But the telecom giant could be on the hook for hundreds of millions in damages over the program, and the lawsuit could have wider implications for internet and tech giants that collect massive amounts of data about their users to sell advertising.

“All sorts of e-commerce is trying to collect this information … (and) digitizing it, collecting it and monetizing it,” said Ted Charney, one of the lawyers representing the Bell customers.

“This is where the big money is going now, and people are increasingly beginning to realize that their privacy and their data is worth something. And they’re beginning to feel more and more like they’re being taken advantage of by these companies.”

Charney has previously said $750 million was “a very conservative number” in assessing potential damages, but said Tuesday that it’s difficult to estimate the potential bill for Bell if the lawsuit is successful. He said lawyers are still trying to determine how much money each customer’s personal data was worth to Bell.

Bell’s program, which was revealed in 2013, would collect demographic and location information, service usage, and even the specific websites customers visited and the apps downloaded to their phones. That information could then be used by advertisers hoping to zero in on very specific markets.

The federal privacy commissioner ruled in 2015 that the program ran afoul of Canadian privacy law because Bell did not obtain sufficient consent from its customers for such invasive tracking.

Privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien recommended that Bell require its customers to explicitly opt in before having their personal information collected.

Bell initially rejected the privacy watchdog’s recommendations, but dropped its opposition after Therrien publicly released his ruling on the program. Bell now runs a “Tailored Marketing Program,” similar to the RAP, which requires customers’ consent.

Nathan Gibson, a spokesperson for Bell Canada, said the RAP program was not launched and that the Tailored Marketing Program is “fully opt in.”

“Individual customer information is never shared with advertisers or anyone else, and no advertiser would ever have direct access to any of our customers,” Gibson wrote in a statement to the Star.

“While we don’t disclose participation numbers, a significant number of customers have signed up for the program.”

Charney said Bell customers must now be contacted and asked if they’d like to opt out of the lawsuit, a process that typically takes between two and three months. He expects the lawsuit to move forward this year or in early 2020.