IE Bell Canada

[evensgrey]

It's getting a bit older now, but Bell Canada has decided to track a whole lot of usage info about their subscribers to target ads better:

http://support.bell.ca/billing-and-accounts/security_and_privacy/how_does_bell_respect_my_privacy?step=4

Bell will use the following categories of information:
Network usage information, such as:

    Web pages visited from your mobile device or your Internet access at home.
    This may include search terms that have been used.
    Location
    App and device feature usage
    TV viewing
    Calling patterns

Account information:

    Information about your use of Bell products and services (such as device type, postal code, payment patterns, and language preference)
    Demographic information such as gender or age range

Well, I do all my surfing through TOR now, and as soon as Eastlink gets its' act together and offers digital services here, I'll be dropping Bell's sorry ass.

This has also drawn the attention of the Federal Privacy Commissioner, and our current government isn't very pleased with any number of Bell's antics for the last several years.  This has also been compared to the Negative Option Billing fiasco Rogers cable TV service had back in the 1990's. (Rogers offered a while slate of new services initially for free, and you had to explicitly contact Rogers and have them remove the services at the end of the free introductory period or be billed for them.  This was so unpopular that not only did Rogers drop the idea, it was explicitly prohibited by the then government.)

[MrBogosity]

Personally, I don't see what the big deal in all of this is. I'd much rather have ads targeted to my tastes than yet more ads for Cialis and whatever pseudo-porn game someone's come up with as a way of making a quick buck.