Surveillance Pricing: Exploiting Information Asymmetries

The article documents a trend where companies like Uber, Ticketmaster, and Orbitz use personal data for discriminatory pricing—and argues that New York's 2025 Algorithmic Pricing Disclosure Act and proposed federal bills must include enforcement mechanisms, not just transparency, to be effective.

Wednesday, April 22, 2026 12:00 PM UTC2 MIN READSOURCE: Hacker NewsBY sys://pipeline

The article traces how datafication and online retail have enabled 'surveillance pricing'—using personal data to charge different customers different prices for identical products. It documents a history of corporate exploitation (Ticketmaster, Uber surge pricing, Orbitz, Instacart) and examines New York's Algorithmic Pricing Disclosure Act (May 2025) alongside proposed federal bills like the Stop AI Price Gouging Act. It argues transparency-only approaches are insufficient and calls for enforcement-backed regulation.