A new policy rollout from Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow takes aim at what the Federal Trade Commission has termed "surveillance pricing."
The campaign describes surveillance pricing as the practice of using hyper-personal data like search history and shopping patterns to set different prices for different consumers.
McMorrow, who is currently a member of the Michigan Senate, said it’s something the federal government needs to step in and stop, especially as AI models become stronger and more prevalent.
“With the advent of all of these tech tools, we need to make sure that the government’s responsibility is that tech advances serve people, not the other way around,” McMorrow said.
Her proposal, she said, would stop personal data from being used to raise rent or store prices, or to lower wages.
New York and California are among the states that where legislation to stop or regulate this type of dynamic pricing is already proposed.
The issue comes as retailer Walmart is rolling out dynamic pricing in stores — though the company said its stores it will only change prices outside of shopping hours.
McMorrow said personalized prices are more exploitative, however, since costs could vary consumer to consumer.
“What we’re talking about is personalized behavior. Let’s say I am somebody who likes doing research. I looked up the same flight three times and because I looked it up three times, my flight is higher than the person who just looked it up once and booked it,” McMorrow said.
While the federal trade commission in 2024 labeled personalized pricing as a cause for concern, reporting has found it hard to nail down widespread examples of it in use.
Some marketing experts have liked it to an extension of haggling and said it could, in some cases, lead to lower prices for people.
McMorrow is running in Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary against candidates including former Wayne County Health Director Dr. Abdul El-Sayed and Congresswoman Haley Stevens (D-MI 11). Both campaigns are also naming affordability measures as policy priorities.
