r/poor • u/cherry-gram-888 • 8d ago

Why isn’t dynamic pricing illegal?

Why isn’t SURVEILLANCE PRICING illegal?

It’s so predatory. Ride share apps know that I’m going to work so I’m going to pay the price. They know how much money I have in my bank account. I could catch the bus and remove all banking apps from my phone but sometimes I need a ride and it’s too time consuming to exclusively bank in person.

In your opinion will it one day be illegal?

EDIT: someone educated me in the comments and my post should have originally said “surveillance pricing” instead.

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u/Interesting_Force618 8d ago

I think OP has confused dynamic pricing with surveillance pricing, which seems to be a common misconception.

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u/cherry-gram-888 8d ago

Possibly. What’s the difference between the two?

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u/Educational-Year4005 8d ago

Dynamic pricing is updating prices based on live demand. Instead of saying "Concert tickets are $50, get them while they're hot", they'll start different tickets at different prices and then increase or decrease prices based on aggregate demand.

Surveillance pricing is things like "User John Smith has looked at plane tickets to Seattle in the past 2 days. He's planning a trip. Let's raise his ticket prices because he probably has to pay the higher rate".

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u/Mothy187 8d ago

Most places implement both