You are probably being scammed by Dynamic Pricing

[TimStr]

AI powered dynamic pricing is being implemented to extract more money from you. And the way you are being tricked is by exploting a belief that you hold.

Notice, that something as simple as a price tag is never really questioned by you. "It's the same price for everyone." is a believe that you probably hold whenever you see a price tag. Notice that this cannot be taken for granted at all. There were times in history before the price tag. Notice how awesome a trustworthy price tag actually is!

But now, companies start using AI to adjust the price tag you see in real time according to the data they collect about you. Loyalty program apps are also a part of this. This is a symptom of sourveillance capitalism (a term coined by Shoshana Zuboff). And it will basically turn all consumption and shopping into a game on how companies can extract the most money from you.

 

Be aware that this is allready happening to you and that this will get way worse if no legislation is being put into place. And be aware how this scam is implemented by playing on your subconsciously held believes.

One of the most prominent examples is Ticketmaster:

 

Another example is the grocery store Kroger, that used it's loyality program to track users and collect data and create shopper profiles.
(Source: Consumer Reports)

 

@Leo Gura I saw on your blog that you are still collecting examples of scams. This one might be worthy of a post.

Edited 5 hours ago by TimStr
typos

[TimStr]

Here are a few tipps to at least partly circumvent this as a customer. 

1) Avoid costumer loyalty apps! (Ask yourself: "If I get a discount on that app, how is that discount being payed for?" Hint: Its actually being payed for by extracting money from you.)

2) Make your online purchases through a browser like Forefox or Brave instead of an app. Using the browser gives you more control on what data is collected on you. This also works on your phone! 

3) Set your browser to delete coockies whenever you close it. Or you can use private mode in your browser. (This makes a huge difference when buying stuff like airplane tickets.) For mobile use there is Firefox Focus that does exactly that on your phone. Firefox Focus also blocks tracking scripts by deafault. (I have blocked almost 35.000 trackers since I started using it 2 years ago.)

4) Use a plugin like NoScript to block tracking in your browser. (This might be a little bit too technical for some of you. And is a little bit of work when you start using it, since you need to unbreak some websites when you first use them. But it gives you granular control over what scripts webites are allowed to run in your browser.)

5) Use a DNS sinkhole like pihole or adguard to filter all your web traffic from trackers. This also gives you the advantage of never being bothered by ads again. (Setting this up is also a bit technical.)

 

Edited 4 hours ago by TimStr