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Canada's Bell Telecommunications Company Wants Permission To Gather, Track Customer Data (www.cbc.ca)
Bell Canada is asking customers for permission to track everything they do with their home and mobile phones, internet, television, apps or any other services they get through Bell or its affiliates. "In return, Bell says it will provide advertising and promotions that are more 'tailored' to their needs and preferences," reports CBC.ca. From the report: "Tailored marketing means Bell will be able to customize advertising based on participant account information and service usage patterns, similar to the ways that companies like Google and others have been doing for some time," the company says in recent notices to customers. If given permission, Bell will collect information about its customers' age, gender, billing addresses, and the specific tablet, television or other devices used to access Bell services. It will also collect the "number of messages sent and received, voice minutes, user data consumption and type of connectivity when downloading or streaming." "Bell's marketing partners will not receive the personal information of program participants; we just deliver the offers relevant to the program participants on their behalf," the company assures customers. Teresa Scassa, who teaches law at the University of Ottawa and holds the Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy, says Bell customers who opt into Bell's new program could be giving away commercially valuable personal information with little to no compensation for increased risks to their privacy and security. "Here's a company that's taking every shred of personal information about me, from all kinds of activities that I engage in, and they're monetizing it. What do I get in return? Better ads? Really? That's it? What about better prices?"
Toronto-based consultant Charlie Wilton, whose firm has advised Bell and Rogers in the past, says: "I mean, in a perfect world, they would give you discounts or they would give you points or things that consumers would more tangibly want, rather than just the elimination of a pain point -- which is what they're offering right now."
Toronto-based consultant Charlie Wilton, whose firm has advised Bell and Rogers in the past, says: "I mean, in a perfect world, they would give you discounts or they would give you points or things that consumers would more tangibly want, rather than just the elimination of a pain point -- which is what they're offering right now."
While I live in the United States, I am strongly encouraging my Canadian brothers and sisters to not grant Bell Canada the right to harvest such information. Learn from the mistakes that we in the states made. We gave away our privacy and caused all kinds of headaches that can never be undone. It's like a nuclear bomb. You drop it and everything is fucked up forever. Please, Canadians, have a sudden outbreak of common sense. Corporations cannot ever be trusted with our data. Please don't make the mistake that the US sheeple did by placing all this unearned trust in the hands of corporate poison like Facebook, Twitter, and Google - even more.
Bell Canada ranks up there with anyone else in the world for most evil corporation.
I have a friend who used to do marketing for a provincial lottery commission. Her job was literally to make people want to gamble more. We've all got to justify what we do, so it was improving the experience so people got the best value for their entertainment dollar.
When you repeat your justifications enough you start to believe them. The ad industry has told itself so many times that people *like* personalized ads that they think it's true. Bell is about to learn that it's not. I actually called them up recently and told them that they are, under no circumstances, to call me with any marketing whatsoever. This was after they rang me while I was travelling internationally. I answered because I thought it might be important. Nope.
I have to hand it to Google though. They've got this personalized ad thing down perfectly. I had never seen an ad on YouTube until I saw it under someone else's account. Google appears to have figured out that when I see an ad I go elsewhere.
There are privacy laws, which seem to be being weakened. This is why currently Bell has to ask permission.
Unluckily our CRTC is like your FCC, run by Telecom shills and they have lobbying power in Parliament. Bell is currently really pushing to get rid of net neutrality and be allowed to block any site they claim facilitates copyright infringement.
Then there's the internet tax that is being pushed, anything over 15GBs taxed to make up for the streaming services not paying the artists enough and of course the only reason someone would use over 15GBs a month is to stream. They're not even bothering with the piracy excuse anymore, just need more money "for the artists" which has been the publishers story for 3 hundred years while ripping of the artists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
I'll add for all the Canadians, that we have until Jan 11th to make submissions on the future of the Internet.
One place to start is here, https://act.openmedia.org/Cana... ran by Openmedia, https://openmedia.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
Well they haven't changed the law yet. If they get people agreeing, they'll use that to argue against any privacy in the new law.
We have until Jan 11th to tell the government our side. of how the law should be updated.
https://openmedia.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
They ask politely.
Anyone else would have just done it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.