San Francisco: Don't Fall for Industry Defense of Surveillance Pricing
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Re: San Francisco: Don't Fall for Industry Defense of Surveillance Pricing
#2Re: San Francisco: Don't Fall for Industry Defense of Surveillance Pricing
#3I agree that surveillance pricing sounds terrible and discriminatory. But people are also happy with coupons, codes, introductory pricing, employee discounts and many of the other schemes that do more or less the same thing. One guy who worked for an athletic shoe company told me that they had a special code that their sponsored athletes could give to their friends.
In the end, what's the difference?
Re: San Francisco: Don't Fall for Industry Defense of Surveillance Pricing
#4I agree that surveillance pricing sounds terrible and discriminatory. But people are also happy with coupons, codes, introductory pricing, employee discounts and many of the other schemes that do more or less the same thing. One guy who worked for an athletic shoe company told me that they had a special code that their sponsored athletes could give to their friends. In the end, what's the difference?
> what's the difference?
For me, it's the surveillance infrastructure per se. My main curiosity around these bills is to what extent surveillance pricing–versus ad targeting–drives the economics of those systems. (My prior is not much.)
Re: San Francisco: Don't Fall for Industry Defense of Surveillance Pricing
#5This is what I think of when I think of personalized pricing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVlT3uHlNAg&t=111s
It's pretty much what I've done when selling at flea markets all of my life. I ask what I think the market will bear, per person and situation. I don't feel at all guilty for it. It doesn't surprise me at all that mass customization in the information age has brought us to it at scale, or that the force of law would be necessary to repress it.
Some people seem to feel they have a right to the best price without negotiating or shopping. I don't feel that I'm owed or owe that privilege.
Re: San Francisco: Don't Fall for Industry Defense of Surveillance Pricing
#6I agree that surveillance pricing sounds terrible and discriminatory. But people are also happy with coupons, codes, introductory pricing, employee discounts and many of the other schemes that do more or less the same thing. One guy who worked for an athletic shoe company told me that they had a special code that their sponsored athletes could give to their friends. In the end, what's the difference?
Well, they're all discounts, for starters.
Surveillance pricing defenders claim that surveillance pricing is better because it works both ways--it might offer a higher price to someone who is desperate, but someone who is likely not that motivated might get a sweet deal. I highly doubt that. A highly-advertised, transparent discount or sale is how you sell to someone who is not that motivated. Surveillance pricing is how you (secretly) extract as much money as possible from the desperate.
Re: San Francisco: Don't Fall for Industry Defense of Surveillance Pricing
#7This is what I think of when I think of personalized pricing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVlT3uHlNAg&t=111s It's pretty much what I've done when selling at flea markets all of my life. I ask what I think the market will bear, per person and situation. I don't feel at all guilty for it. It doesn't surprise me at all that mass customization in the information age has brought us to it at scale, or that the force of…
It is because you're on the side benefitting from it. It doesn't benefit the consumer or the working class.
Re: San Francisco: Don't Fall for Industry Defense of Surveillance Pricing
#8This is what I think of when I think of personalized pricing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVlT3uHlNAg&t=111s It's pretty much what I've done when selling at flea markets all of my life. I ask what I think the market will bear, per person and situation. I don't feel at all guilty for it. It doesn't surprise me at all that mass customization in the information age has brought us to it at scale, or that the force of…
It is because you're on the side benefitting from it. It doesn't benefit the consumer or the working class.
> It doesn't benefit the consumer or the working class
It should absolutely benefit the blue-collar consumer. Whom it hurts is the moderately rich. (If it works as intended.)
Re: San Francisco: Don't Fall for Industry Defense of Surveillance Pricing
#9I agree that surveillance pricing sounds terrible and discriminatory. But people are also happy with coupons, codes, introductory pricing, employee discounts and many of the other schemes that do more or less the same thing. One guy who worked for an athletic shoe company told me that they had a special code that their sponsored athletes could give to their friends. In the end, what's the difference?
Actually many people thoroughly detest forced "memberships" to pay the actual price of the item, digital coupons, forced use of apps, and all of the other utter nonsense. I hope surveillance pricing bills destroy all of them forever.
Re: San Francisco: Don't Fall for Industry Defense of Surveillance Pricing
#10This is what I think of when I think of personalized pricing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVlT3uHlNAg&t=111s It's pretty much what I've done when selling at flea markets all of my life. I ask what I think the market will bear, per person and situation. I don't feel at all guilty for it. It doesn't surprise me at all that mass customization in the information age has brought us to it at scale, or that the force of…
How much did you know about the person you were selling to? Did you know what websites they visited or what past purchases they made or what time they went to sleep every night?