TTC rider shocked by X-rated ad on free public WiFi portal

A Toronto subway passenger got quite the surprise this week after logging onto the TTC's free public WiFi network, only to be served an ad for... well, it's not quite clear what the ad was for, but it was definitely penis-related.

The woman, who does not want to be named, says she logged into the TCONNECT WiFi system at St. Clair West Station around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday when she saw the headline "This Cock is Active Again."

"And no, they weren't referring to roosters," she wrote in an email to blogTO. "I'm no prude but was taken aback when this was the ad that popped up after I logged in to TTC WiFi."

It's important to note that the ad was served on tconnect.ca's captive login portal. It appeared right at the top of the "you're connected" confirmation page one receives after successfully linking up to the TTC's WiFi network.

Image submitted by user

Upon complaining to the TTC, the woman was told by a customer service rep for that she'd need to contact TCONNECT for answers. 

A representative for BAI Communications, which operates the free TCONNECT public WiFi network across the TTC, apologized by email to the woman today.

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention. This is completely unacceptable and we are so sorry that this content slipped past our filters. We do not allow any adult content to appear on our captive portal," reads the email she received. "We are rectifying the issue right now."

In response to my own questions about how the, um, bedroom enhancement (?) ad popped up on the woman's phone in the first place, BAI said the following.

"A portion of our ad inventory is programmatically purchased via an online exchange, which filters out any adult content. This ad slipped through those filters and all programmatic ad-buying was disabled as soon as we became aware of the issue."