In recent news, Bell made the decision of collecting private data from its customers in order to serve “customized ads” to its users. The data being collected ranges from “websites [customers] visit” to “what phone calls [customers] make”. Of course, not too many customers are pleased with this new decision—given that their privacy information will be monitored and observed by Bell employees.

What this reminds me of is when BC Hydro implemented their smart meters and it was collecting customers’ usage information. This led to privacy issues brought up by consumers. Similarly, for Bell, private information being leaked may also be a concern for their customers.

To minimize the complaints or concerns they may receive, Bell gave customers the option “to opt out” if they do not want to participate in this program. However, what if customers were not notified about this new program? To my knowledge, only a “statement on [Bell’s] privacy page” notifying people that they’ll start using personal information of customers for advertisement purposes was posted. I don’t think what Bell is doing is ethical as they are trying to force this upon customers who have no idea what is going on. They are trying to take advantage of the fact that most customers won’t bother to opt out even if they are concerned with information leakage or customers who don’t even know about this. Through this, Bell is able to quickly generate a huge sample group to aid them in performing better in their ads, but is this the way to go? Maybe this strategy WILL attract more customers by adding customized ads but they may also lose customers as they feel like they are being betrayed and used by Bell. Maybe Bell should consider another approach such as consulting with their customers beforehand and generating a sample group through volunteers.

Source: Bell Image

Recently, Instagram decided to take advantage of their increasing popularity to implement advertisements into their current operating system. The objective of this update is to create a source of revenue for Instagram. With Instagram’s new layout, consumers are forced to view and scroll past advertisements in order to continue viewing other users’ content.

According to Instagram’s blog, they will “start slow” .  However, will this make a difference in consumers’ perceptions? Now-a-days, many individuals like jumping to conclusions after having the slightest bit of exposure to a new idea. It is understandable that Instagram is taking things slowly after seeing how Facebook’s dramatic changes impacted its consumers. However, an advertisement is an advertisement—little would enjoy them especially if they will be impeding the simplistic layout of Instagram. In addition, most people use Instagram for the sole purpose of posting or viewing content by other users. With the implementation of advertisements, users will just mindlessly scroll past the advertisements to view the content around the ad, which makes the ads useless. Regardless of users’ actions, Instagram would still be generating revenues from companies who place ads in this application.

The main consequence of this will be users who dislike the new look of Instagram may start using Vine, which can be considered to be Instagram’s direct competitor. Though some services are differentiated, most are similar—both programs allow users to post short video clips to share. If users start substituting Instagram with Vine, Instagram not only suffers a loss in consumers, but also a loss in future consumers due to bad reviews from previous consumers.  As a result, a cost-benefit analysis should be performed for this new implementation before creating further updates which makes it harder to go back. If it doesn’t work out, a new way of earning revenue should be sought.

Source: Instagram Image