Despite the longstanding argument that surveillance pricing tools can offer selected discounts and prices to targeted demographics, a preliminary FTC report argues that this practice actually increases prices for the consumer. What is most worrying are the types of information used for this purpose.
Businesses charge customers more for products based on insights gleaned from their consumer data and behaviors — including geolocation, demographics, shopping habits or even how an individual moves their mouse on a webpage — the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said in a preliminary report released Friday.
Note that the Record has recently been purchased by Mastercard, which is one of the companies mentioned in the report. However, they did write a proper COI disclaimer in the article.
A spokesperson for Revionics said the company does not develop software that “recommends pricing targeted to specific individuals. Revionics does not, in any manner, use individual consumer data.”
Gotta watch out for weaselly language like this. Similar to Google saying FLoC/their Topics API places you into various groups instead of targeting you an an individual. The buckets/groups you get placed in can be just as sensitive and personally identifying as being targeted specifically as an individual.