(WHTM)– A Pennsylvania lawmaker is proposing a bill that would outlaw surveillance pricing in Pennsylvania.
Surveillance pricing is when companies use personal data such as location, browsing history, purchase patterns, and demographics to predict how much a consumer is willing to pay for an item, according to the New York Times.
A report conducted by the Groundwork Collaborative found that Instacart conducts AI-enabled price experiments on customers. This can result in different prices for the same product to different customers.
According to the memo, prices differed by up to 23% per item. The memo said that travel booking companies and others also use these methods.
The legislation, proposed by State Sen. Lindsey Williams (D-38), would ban companies from using personal data to charge different customers different prices for the same product at the same time.
The bill would also regulate the use of consumer data in pricing strategies.
“Grocery store prices are already higher than ever, and now greedy corporations are using AI to manipulate customers into paying more than their neighbor,” Sen. Williams said. “They are training AI with our personal data and rigging prices to charge us as much as possible.”
The bill has not yet been submitted for introduction.
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