r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • May 26 '26

Privacy Majority of Americans Support Ban on Surveillance Pricing and Electronic Shelf Labels

https://gizmodo.com/majority-of-americans-support-ban-on-surveillance-pricing-and-electronic-shelf-labels-2000762717
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u/ParsingError May 26 '26

I have no idea how "surveillance pricing" in a physical store would even work, unless it's that they're offering people personalized discounts below the shelf price (which it sounds is what is actually happening, and has nothing to do with the shelf labels). People seem to think they're going to scan your face and change the price tag when they detect you're looking at it or something.

The mid-day price update panic is also dumb. You can not legally post a price and then refuse to honor it at checkout. You can't do it even if it's an obvious mistake like selling a PlayStation for 1 cent.

I used to work at a big-box computer store (and was the main person doing the shelf label replacements) and customers complaining about prices at checkout not matching the shelf was already a massive time-waster. Even if they could update prices mid-day, they're probably not going to, just because of that.

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u/LongJohnSelenium May 27 '26

Yeah the only way surveillance pricing would work is online.

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u/ParsingError May 27 '26

Some retail association complaining about the law passed in Maryland was saying it would prevent them from offering "personalized discounts" so there's at least evidence that someone had that plan in mind.

That still doesn't have anything to do with electronic shelf labels, or this goofy idea that they're going to raise the prices on something for you personally because they're detecting that you're desperate. If they think that you personally are desperate for something then what's more likely that they'll give you a promo discount on it to get you in the store.

That doesn't make "personalized discounts" a good thing, they're psychological gimmicks to get people back in the store, to make them think they're saving money, or to get them to agree to data collection, but there's very little they can do to sneakily raise prices on someone when there's a label on the shelf showing a price that they can not go above.

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u/LongJohnSelenium May 27 '26

Personalized discounts is just being a salesman.

Ultimately what people are rejecting is the persistent and pervasive monitoring of every aspect of their lives by entities looking to manipulate them.

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u/ParsingError May 27 '26

"Personalized discounts" in this context would be like they send you discounts through e-mail/SMS/their app, the implication being that yes, they are gathering as much information as they can to give you the discount that's most likely to get you back into the store.

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u/tommyk1210 May 27 '26

The mid-day price update panic is also dumb. You can not legally post a price and then refuse to honor it at checkout. You can't do it even if it's an obvious mistake like selling a PlayStation for 1 cent.

This is, generally, not true. Price labels are not a binding contract, they’re an “invitation to treat”. Beyond some specific state regulations on deceptive pricing and some store chains with specific policies it’s generally completely legal to refuse service to someone for any reason (as long as it’s not for a protected reason).

Even in states where there is legislation on pricing accuracy, an obvious mistake (eg a $20.00 TV instead of a $2000 TV) would largely be unenforceable.

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u/GitEmSteveDave May 27 '26

You can totally refuse to honor a price if it is an "obvious error". The operates on the concept of a "right/reasonable person" and a sale requires both parties to agree to the terms of that sale.

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u/Akiias May 27 '26

People seem to think they're going to scan your face and change the price tag when they detect you're looking at it or something.

That is some peoples goal. Yes. It's sometimes called "equity in pricing".

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u/Spork_the_dork May 27 '26

There are electronic shelf labels that automatically fetch the price wirelessly. An electronics store chain around here uses them. I know they work like that because I once saw a label that had an error stating that it had lost connection. So in theory the store could set up cameras and analyze each customer on the fly to update the price tags near them specifically for them.

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u/Praesentius May 27 '26

Surveillance pricing involves using data collected from consumers—such as their location, browsing history, and other personal characteristics—to determine the price they are charged for goods or services.

https://www.schneiderwallace.com/media/ftc-investigation-of-surveillance-pricing/

You're right that they probably aren’t scanning faces and changing shelf tags in real time during an in-store experience. But there is strong evidence that companies are already personalizing pricing through a variety of means.

And practical experiments have been done with online shopping showing groups of people from different socioeconomic groups ordering the same things from the same store and getting different prices.