Bell shuts down Relevant Advertising Program, will “delete all existing customer profiles”

Following the Office of the Privacy Commissioner’s report on Bell’s Relevant Advertising Program, the company has decided to completely shut down the program. On a message on the Privacy Commissioner’s site, Bell stats that it will go the distance and “delete all existing customer profiles related to the program.”

Bell’s Relevant Ads Program was an opt-out initiative that saw the telecommunications giant collect extensive data on its customers’ usage patterns. This information was then sold to third-party advertisers, who used the data to deliver targeted ads to Bell’s customers. The Privacy Commissioner concluded this program had “significant privacy concerns.”

Bell says that if it launches a similar program in the future, it would do so using express opt-in consent.

[source] Privacy Commissioner [/source]