The Federal Trade Commission announced on Tuesday that it’s ordering eight companies that offer AI-powered “surveillance service pricing” to turn over information about the potential impact these products have on privacy, competition and consumer protection.
With this investigation, the agency is seeking to learn more about how artificial intelligence and other technologies are being used to change pricing based on consumer behavior, location and other personal data. This practice allows companies to charge different customers different prices, the FTC says.
The eight companies are Mastercard, Revionics, Bloomreach, JPMorgan Chase, Task Software, PROS, Accenture and McKinsey & Co. The FTC says all of these companies offer services that use AI to target prices for different customers.
The agency is seeking information about the types of surveillance pricing services that each company has developed and may license to third parties, along with current uses of the services. It is also seeking information about how the services are impacting consumer pricing.
FTC Wants Answers on Companies Using Your Data for ‘Surveillance Pricing’
The US regulator is concerned that major firms, including Mastercard and JPMorgan Chase, exploit people’s personal information to help vendors charge higher prices.
The Federal Trade Commission is investigating “surveillance pricing,” where a vendor can tap your personal data to secretly increase what you pay at checkout.
The agency is asking eight “middlemen” companies to reveal how they combine computer algorithms and people’s personal information to adjust pricing.
“Now firms could be exploiting this vast trove of personal information to charge people higher prices,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in Tuesday’s announcement. “Americans deserve to know whether businesses are using detailed consumer data to deploy surveillance pricing.”
The eight are Mastercard, Revionics, Bloomreach, JPMorgan Chase, Task Software, PROS, Accenture, and McKinsey & Co, which can help companies personalize their products for consumers. But the same capabilities can also enable “dynamic pricing” to alter a product’s price in real-time based on a variety of opaque factors.
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