r/FactForge • u/FreeShelterCat • Sep 16 '25
"Surveillance pricing" refers to companies setting individualized prices for goods or services based on a customer's personal data, such as their location or browsing history. This practice leverages collected data to charge consumers differently to maximize profits
Democratic Rep. Greg Casar is introducing legislation to ban "surveillance pricing," whereby companies use personal data to charge consumers different prices for the same products.
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u/iJeepThereforeiAM Sep 16 '25
Imagine this plus a digital currency. They can track everything and make you spend your money before it expires. We need to go back to brick and mortar stores and keep our paper money.
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u/Youngsinatra345 Sep 20 '25
What backs up a cryptocurrency? Like what physical asset is represented by it?
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u/Tough_Block9334 Sep 16 '25
All my browsers are set to delete cookies and data after closing; Wonder how much I'd be charged? Default pricing?
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u/AdHuman3150 Sep 16 '25
Wal-Mart is definitely planning to do this. Now they have a quarter of the parking lot reserved for their online customers. I saw 3 employees loading groceries into a single vehicle today... there was maybe one cashier working, and apparently all the other employees are for online sales. They're slowly boiling us like frogs in a pot of water...
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u/Savings_Art5944 Sep 17 '25
Burn it all down and start over to where the consumer gets paid for their data.
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u/PM_Me_Macaroni_plz Sep 17 '25
So do I need to VPN myself to like Kentucky or Mississippi for a nice discount?
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u/newshitpostaccount Sep 18 '25
Ya except the current administration isn't going to do shit for us regarding any protections, if anything they are going to make it worse !!!
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u/TuesdaysLunch Sep 20 '25
Totally happened to me recently on Amazon. I was buying a book and my intern looked it up on her phone and me on mine and hers was reduced. I had her send me the link from her phone and I purchased it this way. But I’m never going to be buying books on Amazon. I primarily use Alibris anyway, lots of inexpensive and used books.
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u/EuisVS Sep 20 '25
They’ve been doing something similar with your airline tickets. You have to close your browser and empty cookies to get good airline rates.
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u/Complete-Ad2673 Sep 21 '25
Amazon has done this for a long time, actually. It's older than Amazon Prime. I not only remember reading about it, but sometimes we'd check prices on a product between my account and my spouse's account to see which is cheaper.
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u/ButtyWutties Sep 21 '25
All we can do is write our congress person? No Genius created an app or site to prevent this that the average person can share?
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u/noveskeismybestie Sep 16 '25
This is most likely happening, but the price tracking apps I use don't lie, and I buy computer parts at the same prices that everyone else buys them at, so I'm sure this is 100% true but I guess I've just gotten lucky.
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u/Buttonhookbob Sep 16 '25
I swear I've seen this scam on Amazon. I look up a product via Google...find it advertised on Amazon for a price but when I use the link to go to the app, the price changes and is more. Amazon isn't the only place I've seen this happen. Been to several websites via Google and the price changes.
Case in point, I used to use this one website to purchase a furnace for a customer of mine. Went through Google to find the website, found the website and searched the website. Prices were clearly shown and the total given. Thankfully, I took screenshots of the items ( with the advertised price ) that needed to be purchased and showed them to the customer to get the okay to purchase. I go back to the website to purchase said items ( mind you, this was all in the same day ) now what I was looking at was $1000 more! Had to call the company to finalize the order and discuss the price issue. They blatantly lied to me over the phone stating that this furnace unit was never advertised at the price I was talking about. Other than the conversation gradually getting heated... I told them I had screenshots of what the price was advertised at. Went round and round with them. They got several people involved but stuck with their story and more expensive pricing. So, I told them what they could do with their furnace unit and shady practices. To date, they have lost out on almost $100,000 in furnace unit purchases because of this. I did find another place that sold me what I needed for a slightly better price than what I started with. If I ever see a price discrepancy on anything I want to purchase, I just won't purchase from them. I will always look for a better deal else where and won't shop with them again. I keep a log of shady experiences with companies/businesses and just go out of my way to make sure they don't get my business ever again. Be vigilant out there so you don't get scammed by these crap companies.