Click Here – "The price tag of you"

Date: August 26, 2025
Host: Dina Temple-Raston (Recorded Future News)
Main Guests: Sam Levine (Consumer Law and Economic Justice at Berkeley, former FTC), Emerita Torres (NY Assembly Member, South Bronx)

Episode Overview

This episode explores the unsettling rise of "surveillance pricing"—where companies use AI and personal data to tailor prices to individual consumers, fundamentally shifting the balance of power in commerce. Host Dina Temple-Raston and guests discuss true-life examples, how AI and data brokers enable this practice, the collapse of consumer protections at the federal level, and New York’s pioneering response. The episode highlights the growing risk of predatory pricing and the urgent need for transparency and oversight in the digital marketplace.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personalized Versus "Surveillance" Pricing

• Emerita Torres's Experience:
  Emerita Torres, NY Assembly Member, recounts how she and her constituents observed different prices for the same products (e.g., diapers) depending on device and user, revealing that price inconsistencies are not random ([01:01], [01:39]).
• Host's Analogy:
  Buying everyday items now feels akin to buying airline tickets, where prices fluctuate and seem to punish urgency ([01:55]).
• Sam Levine on Surveillance Pricing:
  “Instead of having one product, one price. We're in a world of one person, one price.” ([03:27])
  Surveillance pricing leverages personal and behavioral data to set individual prices, making it difficult for consumers to comparison shop.

2. How It Works and Why It’s Spreading

• Behavioral Tracking and Price Optimization:
  Data brokers amass detailed consumer profiles and partner with "price optimizers"—firms specializing in extracting maximum profit via algorithmic pricing ([06:17], [07:20]).
• Industry Adoption:
  The FTC found that just eight pricing firms had over 250 clients, including major names: Amazon, Ticketmaster, Walmart, and even dating apps like Tinder ([07:41]).
  • Example: Tinder faced lawsuits for charging older users more; Princeton Review allegedly set higher prices for zip codes with higher Asian populations ([08:25], [08:44]).
• Granularity and Location-Based Pricing:
  Prices can adjust based on hyper-specific factors—where you are, whether you’re on the store’s WiFi, your age, race, or even how fast you’re walking an aisle ([09:22], [12:50]).
  • Target Example: Target’s app reduced item prices by hundreds of dollars when shoppers left the store ([10:19]-[10:29]).

3. AI's Role and Expansion of Surveillance Pricing

• AI Supercharges Pricing:
  AI can finally process the vast consumer data troves, predicting readiness to pay and enabling dynamic, personalized pricing ([13:35]).
• Digital Price Tags:
  New digital pricing screens (e.g., in Walmart, Kroger) are efficient for stores—but advocates warn they pave the way for surveillance pricing ([12:13]).
• Big Ticket Items:
  Beyond groceries, landlords use surveillance pricing (e.g., RealPage case) to coordinate rent hikes ([13:00]).

4. Consumer Protection on the Decline

• FTC’s Shrinking Power:
  Once, the FTC could hold companies accountable and expose market abuses using subpoena power ([17:30], [17:50]).
  • Past Wins: Fines and rules around social media mishandling kids’ data, subscription cancellations, etc. Now, the FTC is less proactive, especially after leadership changes that deprioritize algorithmic pricing oversight ([19:23], [19:33]).
• Broader Federal Retreat:
  Other watchdog agencies (e.g., Consumer Product Safety Commission, CFPB) have been “all but shut down” or had actions blocked, leaving consumers exposed ([20:43]).
  • Quote: “This is the wholesale decimation of consumer protection across the federal government.” – Sam Levine ([17:30])

5. State Solutions and New York’s Law

• New York Steps Up:
  Emerita Torres introduces a law requiring companies to disclose when algorithms and personal data set prices ([22:48]).
  • Resistance came from industry groups claiming it would be disruptive and confusing ([22:59]).
  • As of the episode’s release, the law is in effect—the first of its kind ([23:46]).
• Limitations of Disclosure Alone:
  Transparency is important, but Sam Levine notes that disclosure (as with online privacy) is not enough to protect consumers from algorithmic exploitation ([24:16]).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Instead of having one product, one price. We're in a world of one person, one price."
  – Sam Levine ([03:27])

• "When we're suddenly in a world where you can't look around for prices, where the price you're being offered is ... tailored to you, it's going to make life more expensive."
  – Sam Levine ([04:02])

• "They have dossiers on all of your listeners ... We call it the plumbing of the surveillance economy."
  – Sam Levine on data brokers ([06:17])

• "The holy grail for companies is charging consumers exactly what they're willing to pay and not a penny less ... That's capitalism."
  – Sam Levine ([14:26])

• "At least now we'll know our prices are being set by an algorithm. And of course, consumers will wonder, what does that mean?"
  – Emerita Torres ([23:16])

• "When companies have the ability to charge us the most that we're willing to pay ... we're gonna see much higher prices. And it's going to especially hit the people who are most desperate."
  – Sam Levine ([25:12])

• "If that efficiency is designed to find your breaking point, well, that breaking point just became your price."
  – Dina Temple-Raston ([25:30])

Key Timestamps

• 00:36–01:34 – Emerita Torres’s first-hand experience with price discrepancies
• 02:09–03:38 – Sam Levine on the history and logic of surveillance pricing
• 05:52–07:41 – Data brokers, "price optimizers," and FTC investigations
• 08:25–10:29 – Age/race-based pricing (Tinder, Princeton Review), Target location-pricing exposé
• 13:00–14:59 – AI’s role, digital price tags, and big-ticket surveillance pricing
• 17:30–18:35 – Decay of consumer protection at the federal level
• 22:48–23:50 – New York’s algorithmic pricing disclosure law goes into effect
• 24:16–25:12 – Sam Levine on the limits of transparency and risk of widespread price gouging

Tone & Style

The episode blends real-world storytelling with investigative insight, granting listeners a window into how digital commerce is being shaped by unseen forces. Jargon is kept minimal; personal anecdotes and policy analysis drive home how the issue hits everyday people.

Takeaway

"Surveillance pricing" is rapidly emerging as a feature—not a bug—of an algorithm-driven economy. With federal consumer protections eroding, state initiatives like New York’s are the first step toward transparency, but deeper protections are needed. The price of convenience, it turns out, may be a digital world where the price you pay is set precisely at your breaking point.