On November 16, 2013 Bell Canada will automatically start tracking everything you do on your phone and will shortly add to that everything you do on your TV and Internet – including what you watch, your calling patterns and your mobile app usage.
“The scope of Bell’s intended personal data usage is remarkable,” tech law expert Michael Geist wrote on his blog. “Given that many of its customers will have bundled Internet, wireless, and television services, the company will be tracking everything: which websites they visit, what search terms they enter, what television shows they watch, what applications they use, and what phone calls they make. All of that data will be correlated with their location, age, gender, and more.”
On November 16th you will automatically be included. Don’t want to be tracked this way? Here’s how to opt out:
Grab A Cup of Coffee
Trying to find the way to opt out of this change using the Bell website is very difficult – it took me a while to find it. Are you ready?
- On the Bell.ca website go to Support -> Billing and Accounts support
- Click the Security and Privacy Tab
- Then under Hints and Tips click “See all related hints and tips articles”
- On the search page that comes up look for a link entitled “How does Bell respect my privacy?”
- Scroll right down to the very bottom of the page, where you’ll find the section Your Choices
- It’s hard to notice, but if you put your mouse over the last two words “opt out” you’ll see that they are a link and will take you to the opt-out page.
- Whew!
Now, on the left, click the link for “Customer profiling, online behavioural marketing and your information”
Here’s The Quick Link
Here’s the quick link right to that page: Bell Mobility Opt-Out.
- Put your Bell cell phone number in
- Select “Unfiltered Random Ads (opt out)”
- Enter the security words and click Save.
You’ll still get advertising on Bell, it just won’t be using your data to serve it to you.