{"id":270653,"date":"2026-06-11T15:56:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/11\/yes-to-californias-bill-to-ban-surveillance-pricing\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T17:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T21:30:19","slug":"yes-to-californias-bill-to-ban-surveillance-pricing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/11\/yes-to-californias-bill-to-ban-surveillance-pricing\/","title":{"rendered":"Yes to California’s Bill to Ban Surveillance Pricing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yes to California’s Bill to Ban Surveillance Pricing<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2026\/06\/californias-bill-ban-surveillance-pricing<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-11 15:56:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.eff.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Corporations harvest and monetize ever-growing amounts of our personal data, such as our browsing history and physical location. One bitter fruit of this poisonous tree is known as \u201csurveillance pricing\u201d: corporations offer the same product to two different people at two different prices, based on scrutiny of these people\u2019s respective personal data.<\/p>\n

Surveillance pricing is bad for privacy, equity, and price transparency. So EFF supports a California bill, S.B. 2564, which would ban this creepy practice.<\/p>\n

How Surveillance Pricing Works<\/h4>\n

In 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a report about the practices of six companies that provide surveillance pricing services to hundreds of other companies, including grocery stores and apparel retailers. The report found that surveillance pricing draws upon customers\u2019 browsing history, physical location, and shopping transaction history. Customers\u2019 data can come from the vendor itself, from its surveillance pricing service provider, or from third-party data brokers. Customers are sorted into groups based on their personal data, as is done for targeted ads. As a result of surveillance pricing, a business might offer two customers different prices for the same product, based for example on whether they are a new parent, or whether they live near a business\u2019s competitor.<\/p>\n

As former FTC Chair Lina Khan explained:<\/p>\n

Initial staff findings show that retailers frequently use people\u2019s personal information to set targeted, tailored prices for goods and services \u2013 from a person\u2019s location and demographics, down to their mouse movements on a webpage.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the current FTC chair closed the FTC\u2019s portal for public comments regarding surveillance pricing. Fortunately, the California Attorney General has initiated its own investigation of this practice.<\/p>\n

Researchers have identified many examples of surveillance pricing:<\/p>\n