Should "surveillance pricing" be banned?

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• 00:01

  NPR.

• 00:07

  When you walk into a store, you're probably used to seeing price tags on everything.

• 00:16

  A little sticker or a sign that says to every customer, here is what the product costs.

• 00:22

  But when you shop online, there is no price tag.

• 00:26

  There's just the price you see on screen.

• 00:29

  And because of that,

• 00:29

  do you ever wonder whether the price that you see is the same as what others are seeing?

• 00:35

  Like, could companies use your online data,

• 00:38

  like your location in browsing history, to charge you more than somebody else?

• 00:44

  Sounds fishy, but the short answer is yes.

• 00:48

  It's a practice called personalized pricing, though to critics, it has a more sinister name.

• 00:54

  Surveillance pricing.

• 00:55

  This is The Indicator for Planet Money.

• 00:57

  I'm Adrian Ma.

• 00:58

  And I'm Darian Woods.

• 01:00

  Surveillance pricing was in the news recently after Delta Airlines said it's been using AI to set some ticket prices.

• 01:08

  And even though Delta says it does not engage in personalized or surveillance pricing,

• 01:13

  it hasn't stopped some lawmakers from wanting to ban the practice.

• 01:16

  So today on the show, we wait into this debate.

• 01:19

  Is surveillance pricing as bad as it sounds?

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