Consumer Reports testified on a Massachusetts bill (H.99/S.47) that would prohibit the use of biometric data, like fingerprints and retina scans, in grocery store pricing. If enacted, grocery and food stores would be prohibited from using that data to offer individual consumers different prices.
In 2019, Microsoft announced it was working with Kroger to produce electronic shelving labels for grocery stores that would use video analytics so that, “personalized offers and advertisements can be presented based on customer demographics.” As Fast Company further reported that “a camera at each display will determine through facial recognition AI the gender and age of the shopper passing by.”
This bill is part of the larger effort to address personalized pricing, also known as surveillance pricing, which is when a company uses personal data that they’ve gathered about a consumer—often without the consumer’s knowledge or consent—to set the price of a product or the discount offered to a consumer.
Companies can gather data on consumers’ purchase histories, speed of click through, history of clicks, search history, ‘likes’ on social media, geolocation, IP address, device type, and more, to create a detailed portrait of a consumer. These detailed profiles, combined with technology that enables companies to display different prices to different consumers online, enables companies to individualize prices.
Consumer Reports encouraged the Massachusetts legislature to also consider tackling the broader problem of surveillance pricing. For more, see CR’s testimony at timestamp 5:02.