Surveillance or algorithmic pricing is something many Canadians have never heard of, but it’s likely something they’ve already been impacted by. It happens when a retailer uses personal data to estimate how much a consumer is willingly to pay for a product. “Companies would use data from individual consumers, whether that’s what they use, what they bought before or what they’ve searched, where they live or all kinds of demographic information to set prices higher for some people versus others,” says retail analyst Bruce Winder. How widespread the practice is in Canada remains unclear. Winder says there’s no evidence to suggest it’s a problem in Canada. “The Retail Council of Canada can’t find any evidence of it… It’s not something that is really prevalent here at all and the reason for that is companies know that it wouldn’t be accepted,” said Winder. “They would be very much punished on social media and punished in the court of public opinion.” Still, some Maritimers say they’ve experienced it first-hand. “I don’t love it personally. I don’t enjoy being tracked. Whenever I get asked to be tracked on any website or for my data, I always select no myself,” says Josh Doran. Halifax resident Sylvia Ayers believes the practice will be difficult to “fight back against,” once its becomes more popular. “I find it frightening to think that it’s another way that these algorithms and this technology can have control over our lives without it actually even understanding that,” she says. Ottawa is considering legislation to tackle the issue, but Winder believes government should stay out of it. “In my opinion, it’s better just to let the market self-regulate and let consumers punish anyone who does anything bad, because it’s going to be found out. If you’re paying a different price than someone else, it’s going to come out through social media, conversations with friends, things like that,” says Winder.
