OTTAWA–An Ontario court has cleared the way for a class-action lawsuit against Bell Canada over a controversial advertising program that tracked its customers’ internet, phone and television habits.On Monday, the Ontario Superior Court certified the class-action lawsuit against Bell over its now-discontinued “Relevant Advertising Program” (RAP). The program tracked Bell customers’ activities to build detailed profiles for third-party advertisers.RAP was announced in 2013 and discontinued in 2015, although Bell claims the program was never launched. But the telecom giant could be on the hook for hundreds of millions in damages over the program, and the lawsuit could have wider implications for internet and tech giants that collect massive amounts of data about their users in order to sell advertising.“All sorts of e-commerce is trying to collect this information ... (and) digitizing it, collecting it and monetizing it,” said Ted Charney, one of the lawyers representing the Bell customers.“This is where the big money is going now, and people are increasingly beginning to realize that their privacy and their data is worth something. And they’re beginning to feel more and more like they’re being taken advantage of by these companies.”Charney has previously said $750 million was “a very conservative number” in assessing potential damages, but said Tuesday that it’s difficult to estimate the potential bill for Bell if the lawsuit is successful. He said lawyers are still trying to determine how much money each customer’s personal data was worth to Bell.Read more:Court grants Competition Bureau access to records of complaints against BellBell asking customers for permission to collect more personal informationBell faces $750M lawsuit over advertising programBell’s program, which was revealed in 2013, would collect demographic and location information, service usage, and even ...
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