The victories just keep piling up (see previous victory here). The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada ruled against Bell and it’s collection of personal data for targeted advertising under the Relevant Ads Program (RAP). The question then became: what is Bell’s next move? Well, there was a little back and forth here, so I shall recap:

Apparently Bell withdrew the RAP at the urging of the Privacy Commissioner. They then said they would re-introduce it as “opt-in” only, as per advised by the PrivCom. However, there was remained the outstanding question of what to do with the existing data? During the last victory I had questions about what exactly was being deleted (I am still waiting on my request for clarification from Bell’s privacy officer). PrivCom wants Bell to delete everything. Time passed, but today, PrivCom says that Bell promised to delete the data.

Great! That is excellent news. Does this mean the whole saga is over? No! PrivCom may close there case, but the CRTC case is still ongoing, as far as I know, and there is a laundry list of other issues that need to be addressed. Stay tuned.

Thanks to PIAC and all the others who have done such great work in moving the ball forward. We still have a way to go, but the positive momentum is building up.

If you are a Bell customer, and still in doubt, opt-out of the RAP here.