Most people know prices go up and down. Gas gets more expensive in the summer. Groceries rise with inflation. Airline tickets spike around the holidays. That’s not new. What is new — and deeply troubling — is the rapid growth of “surveillance pricing,” a practice that allows companies to quietly charge different people different prices based on the personal data collected about them.
This isn’t traditional supply and demand. It’s a system built to figure out how much you are willing to pay — and then charge you exactly that.
For working families already stretched thin, the result can mean paying hundreds or even thousands more each year for the same products and services as someone else.
What Surveillance Pricing Is — and How It Works
Surveillance pricing uses data harvested from your online behavior to predict what you’re willing to pay. Companies collect and analyze information from your browsing history, location, income level, device type, purchase habits, and even how long you pause over a product. Algorithms then use that data to adjust prices in real time.
Two people can search for the same flight, the same insurance policy, or the same household appliance — and see two completely different prices.
This isn’t about offering discounts. It’s about maximizing what companies can extract from each individual customer.
“Surveillance pricing turns personal data into a tool for extraction,” said Richard Kline, President of the Union Label and Service Trades Department, AFL-CIO. “Instead of competing to lower prices, companies are competing to figure out how much pain a household can tolerate — and charging right up to that line.”
If the system thinks you’re a higher earner, live in a certain ZIP code, use an expensive phone, or frequently buy without comparing prices, it may show you higher prices because it assumes you can absorb the cost.
Working families often get hit from both sides. If you live in a lower-income area, you may be shown higher rates for credit, insurance, or rental housing because algorithms label you as “higher risk.” If you show signs of financial stability, you may be charged more simply because the system thinks you can pay it.
Either way, the house wins.
A Hidden Cost That Adds Up Fast
Because surveillance pricing happens quietly, most people never realize it’s affecting them. But the impact is real and significant.
Consider how often families make purchases online: groceries, clothing, school supplies, airline tickets, streaming services, car insurance, prescription refills. If a family is consistently nudged toward higher prices — even by a small percentage — the extra cost can quickly add up to thousands of dollars a year.
Unlike traditional price discrimination, this new model is constant and automated. It doesn’t require a salesperson making a judgment call. It runs 24 hours a day, across entire industries, making millions of micro-adjustments designed to increase profit at the consumer’s expense.
And there’s little transparency. Companies are rarely required to disclose when prices are personalized, how they set them, or what data they used to reach that number.
Why It’s Especially Harmful to Workers
Working people already operate within tight financial margins. Wages haven’t kept pace with housing, health care, and education costs, and many households budget down to the dollar. Surveillance pricing exploits that reality.
“Working people are already budgeting every dollar,” Kline added. “When corporations use private data to quietly charge them more, it’s not innovation — it’s a pay cut they never agreed to.”
It penalizes urgency. If a parent needs a last-minute flight to help a sick relative, the system may detect the urgency and raise the price. If someone shops late at night after work and repeatedly searches for the same item, the algorithm may interpret that behavior as desperation — and increase the cost.
It also deepens inequality. Wealthier consumers often have more time and tools to comparison shop, use privacy protections, and navigate around price manipulation. Working families juggling jobs, childcare, and long commutes don’t always have that luxury. The system takes advantage of that gap.
Over time, it creates a marketplace where those with the least flexibility pay the most.
A Dangerous, Predatory Shift
At its core, surveillance pricing flips the basic idea of fair markets on its head. Instead of setting one price based on costs and competition, companies are setting thousands of prices based on how vulnerable each customer appears.
That is a dangerous precedent.
It means corporations are incentivized to know more and more about people’s personal lives — not to serve them better, but to charge them more effectively. The more data they collect, the more precise their pricing becomes. And the less power consumers have to push back.
Without strong oversight, there is little to stop this practice from expanding into essential services: health care, utilities, rent, education, and insurance. When pricing is driven by hidden profiles and predictive behavior models, fairness disappears.
What Needs to Happen Next
Surveillance pricing thrives in the shadows. The first step to stopping it is transparency.
Consumers deserve to know when prices are being personalized and what factors are being used. Lawmakers should be examining whether this practice violates consumer protection standards, especially when it disproportionately impacts working families. Regulators need to treat personal data not just as a privacy issue, but as an economic fairness issue.
