We’re entering a potentially scary world where the price doesn’t just update… it decides based on who you are.

Some call is “personalized pricing”… others call is “surveillance pricing.”
This isn’t dynamic pricing.
This isn’t supply and demand.
This isn’t the airline ticket goes up because the plane is almost full or the Uber gets more expensive because it’s raining.
This is when the price you see is based on you… your purchase history, your urgency, your digital footprint, your predicted willingness to pay… even your mouse movements.

Two people standing side by side… same store, same product… two different prices.

Not because of market conditions… but because of who the algorithm thinks they are.
New York just became the first state to force retailers to disclose when they’re doing this.
A tiny label that says: the system is profiling you right now.
It’s the first crack of transparency in a structure that’s been invisible for some time but is scaling because of AI… and one that’s accelerating because AI makes it easy, cheap and instant.

Now, I don’t think this is an issue of disclosure… It’s about trust.

Two things people hate:

1. The feeling that they’re being watched. 
2. The feeling that they’re being ripped off.

From a consumer standpoint, this pricing strategy does both.

It turns the simplest act in modern life… buying something… into a negotiation you didn’t know you were having.

The FTC has already warned that retailers can track everything from your search patterns to the hesitation in your mouse movements.
Your battery level.
Your location.
Your browsing anxiety.
Your digital tells.

And then the system decides how much you should pay.

Some argue this could become a kind of private “progressive tax.”
Those who can afford more pay more… those who can’t get a break.
It’s a seductive story.
But that only works if the system chooses generosity over extraction.
And algorithms don’t choose morals… they choose margins.
Nothing in the history of these tools to date suggests that outcome.

Because this isn’t just pricing.

This is the migration of the advertising surveillance machine into the core of commerce.
The same architecture built to predict your attention is now predicting your wallet.
The same data used to optimize your feed is now optimizing your bill.

And when prices stop being shared reality… markets stop feeling fair.

The grocery store becomes a casino.
The online cart becomes a poker table.
You’re playing a game without knowing the rules… while the house knows every card in your hand.

So what do consumers do?

The same thing they did in the ad-tracking era: fight data with behavior.
Don’t log in.
Use a different browser.
Use a VPN.
Wait for price drops.
Shop around.
In essence: be sneaky.

But this is not a sustainable equilibrium.

A marketplace only works when the price means something consistent… not when it’s an invisible psychological measurement of your desperation or your device battery level.
Surveillance pricing could be a digital Robin Hood or a silent rent-seeker.

What we end up with depends on the rules we write now.

Because if we get this wrong, we won’t just lose fair prices.
We’ll lose the belief that the marketplace itself isn’t rigged… and once that belief disappears, no disclosure label in the world can bring it back.
And the bigger issues for brands will be core to their very existence: does the consumer trust you… or silently despise you?

Because once trust collapses, price isn’t the only thing that becomes negotiable… loyalty does too.

This is what Elias Makos and I discussed on CJAD 800 AM.

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