The wet dream for companies is to set your prices based on your personal data. They don't need to collude with competitors when every company can just can use facial recognition or pull data from your cell phone to query your income, purchase history, personal demographics, etc. in real time from data brokers and jack up the prices you're being charged accordingly.
Companies have been trying to get discriminatory pricing off the ground for a very long time but one of the major hurdles besides the costs involved in the initial technology installation has been the fact that the public tends to react strongly against it. Stay vigilant and push back against the idea that different people should be charged different prices for the same items based on their personal data.
Companies like Wendy's and Kroger have been forced to walk back their surge pricing plans and Walmart insists they won't do it even as they install the digital price tags and facial recognition technology necessary to put it in place. This is an area where people's actions really can make a difference, as long as companies don't get away with slowly conditioning us to accept it.
altairprime•3mo ago
> They don't need to collude with competitors
It’s more profitable to collude — at least if you’re a believer of modern economic theory, as most CFOs are. Any corporation whose articles of incorporation give priority to shareholder returns is theoretically obligated to collude they’ll make more in profits than they’ll pay in fines or shutdown. Thus the importance of prohibiting collusion: no matter how much profit one can make alone from data, there’s always more to be made by a pack.
more_corn•3mo ago
This is specifically targeting the rent fixing scheme from the infamous landlord management platform.
I’m for it. Price fixing is already illegal. This makes it clear.
autoexec•3mo ago
Companies have been trying to get discriminatory pricing off the ground for a very long time but one of the major hurdles besides the costs involved in the initial technology installation has been the fact that the public tends to react strongly against it. Stay vigilant and push back against the idea that different people should be charged different prices for the same items based on their personal data.
Companies like Wendy's and Kroger have been forced to walk back their surge pricing plans and Walmart insists they won't do it even as they install the digital price tags and facial recognition technology necessary to put it in place. This is an area where people's actions really can make a difference, as long as companies don't get away with slowly conditioning us to accept it.
altairprime•3mo ago
It’s more profitable to collude — at least if you’re a believer of modern economic theory, as most CFOs are. Any corporation whose articles of incorporation give priority to shareholder returns is theoretically obligated to collude they’ll make more in profits than they’ll pay in fines or shutdown. Thus the importance of prohibiting collusion: no matter how much profit one can make alone from data, there’s always more to be made by a pack.