John,
Delta has been sending lawmakers one message — and investors another.
To Congress, the airline insists it doesn’t exploit customer data to implement surveillance pricing (or “personalized pricing,” as they like to soft-pedal it). But to Wall Street, Delta bragged that its new AI tools would let it stop matching competitors’ fares and instead predict exactly the maximum “pain point” each individual passenger would be willing to pay.
The business model is clear: mine troves of every customer’s personal data to squeeze the most money possible out of them.
When companies engage in surveillance-based pricing, they sift through our personal data — browsing history, online purchases, travel patterns, even facial recognition from store cameras — to calculate how great is our need, and how big is our pocketbook.
That means the same flight, grocery item, or concert ticket can cost one person far more than another, based just on personal preferences and circumstances.
If corporations know your income level, how urgently you need to travel, or how often your phone battery runs low, they can exploit that information to charge you more. This isn’t competition — it’s digital discrimination.
Send a message to your representatives to pass legislation banning AI-driven predatory pricing practices and protecting consumers from being targeted through digital surveillance.
It’s not just Delta:
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Uber uses “surge pricing” algorithms to charge higher fares based on riders’ location, past willingness to pay, or even phone battery level.
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Kroger tested electronic shelf tags that could shift grocery prices in real time depending on who was shopping, based on facial recognition.
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Amazon has been accused of quietly adjusting prices based on browsing history and likelihood to make a purchase, showing some customers higher costs for the same item.
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Ticketmaster uses “dynamic pricing” to track income levels, location, and spending behavior and set ever-higher ticket costs.
If regulators fail to step in, surveillance pricing will continue to spread — deepening inequality by turning our private data into a weapon against us. Tell Congress to ban AI-driven pricing practices now. Protect consumers from being targeted by greedy corporations.
Thank you for standing up against corporations’ latest shady tactic — and for keeping an eye on those shifting electronic price tags.
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
