‘Underlying unease’: Warner, other senators demand action on surveillance pricing by companies

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- In the thick of the holiday season, Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) is urging the President Donald Trump administration to crack down on surveillance pricing, citing "underlying unease" over how technology collects personal information without consent.

"We know that more and more data is being collected about us as human beings on a regular basis," Warner told reporters on Thursday. "I think there's a huge concern about how the current Trump administration is using government data in a way that was never intended."

On Thursday, Dec. 18, Warner, who is leading a bipartisan effort on this issue, said surveillance pricing allows companies to replace fixed or static prices with ones tailored by companies to an individual consumer's willingness to pay.

"There [were] concerns that they might be using individualized surveillance to price items," Warner said. "We're particularly concerned about this as well, with Christmas shopping happening in real time right now."

In a letter from Wednesday, Dec. 17, co-written with Sens. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Josh Hawley (R-MO), Warner highlighted a 2024 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) study that found companies used “a wide range of personal data to set individualized consumer prices.”

“As the FTC has documented, businesses are increasingly using personal data, such as demographic information, precise location, or even web browsing history, to target individual consumers with different prices for the same goods and services. Surveillance pricing builds upon not only the data that a company holds on a prospective customer, but also data purchased from shady data brokers,” wrote the senators in a letter to Andrew Ferguson, FTC chairman. “Recent concerns about surveillance pricing for airline tickets illustrate the dangers of this highly intrusive – and for consumers financially burdensome – practice. Fetcherr, an A.I. analytics company, suggested it was developing pricing algorithms for airlines that would target individuals with specific prices that consider “factors like customer lifetime value, past purchase behaviors, and the real-time context of each booking inquiry” to drive up revenue.”

This comes amid recent concerns about surveillance pricing for airline tickets, specifically regarding the dangers of this practice.

An artificial intelligence (AI) company suggested it was developing pricing algorithms for airlines that would target individuals with specific prices that consider “factors like customer lifetime value, past purchase behaviors, and the real-time context of each booking inquiry” to increase revenue, according to Wednesday's letter.