he more companies know about you, the more you can be exploited.
Your data profile is constantly being updated when you browse, shop online, or use your credit card. Websites and apps track your location, device, searches, purchases, shopping carts, mouse movements, and how long you look at a product.
Your data profile includes information from brokers, loyalty programs, credit records, advertising networks, and other platforms. AI groups you by estimating income, interests, and vulnerabilities.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) began investigating in 2024, issuing demands for information to eight companies offering surveillance pricing products: Mastercard, Revionics, Bloomreach, JPMorgan Chase, Task Software, PROS, Accenture, and McKinsey & Company.
In January 2025, the FTC released preliminary findings showing a “hidden ecosystem of data brokers, digital platforms, and other intermediaries that specialize in monitoring and selling user data.”
The findings showed companies had access to extraordinarily detailed information. The FTC found a hidden ecosystem with at least 250 clients “that sell goods or services ranging from grocery stores to apparel retailers.”
Price manipulation is usually not obvious and can be quite sophisticated. Companies can withhold a discount, place expensive products at the top of your search results, or show a financially desperate customer a convenient yet costly financing option.
Investigations Show How Deep This Goes
The Princeton Review was caught charging between $6,600 and $8,400 for the same tutoring package based on customers’ ZIP codes. Asian residents were 1.8 times more likely to receive the higher price, including those in lower-income neighborhoods.
The company conveniently claimed it was based on business conditions. Maybe, but this demonstrates how personalized pricing can mimic discriminatory targeting.
Then we have Instacart “experimenting” with price differences on groceries. A Consumer Reports investigation involving more than 400 shoppers found identical grocery items were offered at different prices to different customers shopping at the same stores at the same time. Nearly three-quarters of the products tested showed price variations of as much as 23 percent.
The behavior isn’t just in the United States. The European Commission found deceptive practices by SHEIN, Apple, Temu, Vinted, Viagogo, Tinder, PayPal, Shopify, Amazon Prime, and more. Practices ranged from fake discounts (i.e., pretending to offer better deals by showing price reductions that are not based on the actual “prior prices”) to pressure selling (i.e., putting consumers under pressure to complete purchases using tactics like false purchase deadlines).
Paired with your personal data, these practices could be highly effective at getting you to pay more.
