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