The FTC has sent mandatory notices for information to eight companies it says engages in “surveillance pricing”, the process by which prices are rapidly changed using AI based on data about customer behavior and characteristics. This process, the FTC claims, allows companies to charge different customers different prices for the same product.
The list includes Mastercard, JPMorgan Chase, Accenture and consulting giant McKinsey. It also includes software firm Task, which counts McDonald’s and Starbucks as clients; Revionics, which works with Home Depot, Tractor Supply and grocery chain Hannaford; Bloomreach, which services FreshDirect, Total Wine and Puma; and Pros, which was named Microsoft’s internet service vendor of the year this year. “Firms that harvest Americans’ personal data can put people’s privacy at risk,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a news release. “Now firms could be exploiting this vast trove of personal information to charge people higher prices.”
If you go through a drive through or to a gas station they can grab your license plate number with a camera and associate it with the information from your credit card.
Somehow a big grocery chain not only got my address to send unsolicited coupons but they kept a history of everything I purchased and sent coupons for stuff I purchased often. All from using my bank issued debit card. I was so creeped out that I stopped shopping there.
Stores have been using your phones Bluetooth Mac address to see where you walk around and linger for at least a decade. I assume they use cameras to do it now. They can also use facial recognition, at least in most states.
I drive about 15 miles out of my way for gas. There is an old bait shop + gas station. It takes about 10 minutes longer to fill up, but there are no cameras or ads, and I can get a tube of crickets while I am there.