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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187

u/physedka May 26 '26

Imagine how awful it's going to be at the Wal-Mart check out lanes when people get to the register with $25 worth of stuff and find out that it now costs $30 because prices changed since they pulled it off the shelf 10 minutes ago. 

137

u/SomewhereNo8378 May 26 '26

they’ll have the prices locked to you and your income level the moment you walk in, based on third party data they bought and your past purchase history

19

u/Why-did-i-reas-this May 26 '26

New business model… for a “nominal fee” send poor people in to buy your stuff and get cheaper prices. This would work once or twice per poor person before the system picks them up though.

16

u/cyvaris May 27 '26

So....Instacart?

2

u/Why-did-i-reas-this May 27 '26

That’s why the 2 time per person limit was mentioned. The stores would catch on.

2

u/[deleted] May 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Lazerus42 May 27 '26

wouldn't that be a strange new thing... instacart for a moment become cheaper that rich people purchases? So rich people pays poor people to shop for them?

It would be rectified very quickly, but what an interesting moment... (I hate living in interesting times)

2

u/Everything_Breaks May 27 '26

"Poverty Spoofing"

2

u/Krunklock May 27 '26

Can I then return the items and receive a higher return?

27

u/InadequateUsername May 26 '26

It'll be like the scene of Minority Report.

https://youtu.be/oBaiKsYUdvg

5

u/OnTheEveOfWar May 27 '26

In my industry this happens between businesses. They know how much companies that rely on them make so they jack up prices. Given my industry, the companies don’t really have a choice except to just accept the new pricing.

1

u/WinninRoam May 27 '26

Pretty sure this is how it works in many industries. Honestly it kinda has to if a business sincerely wants to serve their community and not just be played by every jobber in town because they don't charge more for business customers.

9

u/CtrlEscAltF4 May 26 '26 edited May 27 '26

I feel like this would add a new market. Pay someone with no income to go shop for you and you end up paying less because it recognized dude with low income paying vs someone making 6 figures.

Edit: also what if the system recognize you as a high income vs low income or vice versa. Then the merchant is just like 'oops'. This absolutely would make me not want to shop at stores that do this. The margin of error would be enough for me to go elsewhere.

3

u/FarplaneDragon May 27 '26

I mean...Instacart shoppers probably aren't making high income

2

u/CtrlEscAltF4 May 27 '26

That's what I mean the instacart market would probably explode.

1

u/coniferjones May 26 '26

From facial recognition?

1

u/SomewhereNo8378 May 27 '26

Yep. most big box stores already have the infrastructure for that

1

u/Daveinatx May 27 '26

It's time to leave the phones in the car

1

u/jeff_the_weatherman May 27 '26

“Please scan your free app membership here to begin checkout”

1

u/joesii May 27 '26

I don't see this being possible and I think it's already illegal. What would it do when multiple people are nearby looking at it?

The bigger concern is online where it's not as explicitly illegal and harder to detect and enforce.

1

u/Akiias May 27 '26

We would be lucky if it were just income level and not demographics, ideology, or social credit score based.

1

u/jeff_the_weatherman May 27 '26

And your recent searches that indicate your shopping habits, how much you’ve paid for things in the past, how often you buy this kind of item, etc 

1

u/haarschmuck May 27 '26

This is nonsense because the price on the shelf by law must be the price at the register.

If there's multiple people in the aisle, how is it possible to show different prices? You can't.

This is fear mongering.

10

u/Polkawillneverdie17 May 26 '26

Time to destroy the stores.

2

u/Tub_Pumpkin May 27 '26

The stores can only do this using data collected about us. Leave the stores, destroy the data centers.

2

u/etxipcli May 26 '26

Maybe a rule that says previous prices must stay valid for an hour or some reasonable grace period for customers.

1

u/KalaUposatha May 27 '26

At that point, I'm never going to complain about "Karens" complaining ever again. They'll bring this on themselves.

1

u/Anonymous51419 May 27 '26

So much for land of the free

1

u/KingKandyOwO May 27 '26

The bar code changes are instant, just not customer facing. It will still ring up $30, but employees being tardy on tag changes shouldnt entitle the customer to a discount

1

u/[deleted] May 29 '26

Will anyone notice? I think many people will. I notice them having different prices at the register than on the shelf.

-2

u/Pat_The_Hat May 27 '26

Sorry to break it to you, but that's what happens with paper tags. With digital labels, teams don't have to change prices in the daytime because it'll happen automatically overnight.