Most of the things you interact with online are tracking your location, your device type, and your digital footprint to predict exactly how desperate you are to buy something. If the algorithm thinks you have money, or simply lack options, it alters the price in real-time.
To prove how widespread “surveillance pricing” has become, I decided to see if I could outsmart it. This involved exploiting corporate registry loopholes to create a fake corporate entity, hiring an improv actor off Craigslist to establish a completely separate digital identity, and strapping a burner phone to a drone to make purchases from the airspace above the wealthiest gated community in Minnesota.
Info no. Opinions yes!
It make sense to me, that if you lack a big digital footprint, they will give the highest price.
They always call these discounts, not extra fees. Put the tracker in your car, get cheaper car insurance! Use our club card, enjoy discounted groceries! They don’t call it an extra cost if you don’t. Even though it’s mathematically the same! I think there may even be a legal difference. There is certainly a psychological difference between “you get charged extra” which nobody wants, and “get a discount”. Yayyyy! Who doesn’t enjoy a discount???
Also, they want to make the attractive choice, the one that gives them the most data. So they will crank up the pain for ppl who opt out of the surveilence.
There is a glimmer of hope tho! Basically NOBODY likes this suveilence pricing. There are 24 US states that have pending bills to ban the practice. Maryland have passed theirs already. This is another case where writing to our reps makes a difference.
If you put in a local area code and Jenny’s number it works at every club location because someone always uses it. Ymmv