Different prices for the same product: What is “monitored pricing”?
“If a store knows you just searched for a particular item online, they could charge you a higher price.”
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Is your store monitoring you to change the prices of the items you buy?
Surveillance pricing, the practice of using shoppers’ personal data to change prices, is a controversial topic.
Opponents argue that monitored pricing is unfair and that shoppers are unwilling to pay different, and sometimes higher, prices for the same item. Supporters argue that monitored pricing is used to provide discounts to shoppers, not to drive up costs.
A growing number of states are starting to impact this practice, with at least 40 bills in 24 states considering limiting or banning monitored prices. Maryland became the first state to enact a ban in April, but opponents such as Consumer Reports said the law doesn’t go far enough to protect consumers. Additionally, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, launched an investigation into monitored prices in May.
What is supervised pricing?
Lindsey Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative, said supervised pricing uses data to potentially change prices based on customer behavior.
That information can be provided by customers to businesses through loyalty program memberships, or it can be data collected by businesses from shoppers’ browsing and purchases, he said.
“I like to think of surveillance pricing as the act of monitoring customers to potentially overcharge them,” Owens told USA TODAY. “This behavior is becoming more common as shoppers spend more time shopping online. It’s relatively easy for companies to track many behaviors about you, such as what you put in your cart, what you click on, what you mouse over, and what you frequently purchase if you’re signed in to a loyalty program.”
In a recent survey of voters conducted by the Groundwork Collaborative, 76% of respondents said they supported banning monitored pricing. USA TODAY exclusively revealed the findings for the first time.
Owens said 72% of voters surveyed said they believe discounts should be equal for all customers, even if it’s a small bargain.
In the survey, 83% of voters said they supported companies that used loyalty programs for personalized discounts, but that support dropped to 51% when voters learned that their personal data was used to determine which customers received such benefits.
Misconceptions about monitored prices
But supporters of monitored pricing argue that the technology and practice is misunderstood and unfairly lumped together as a bad thing.
“We can all agree that people shouldn’t be charged a different price for a gallon of milk than their neighbors based on who they are,” Drew Ambrogi, policy manager at the Chamber of Progress, a technology industry policy coalition, told USA TODAY. But Ambrosi said the technology many businesses use to offer discounts and other perks to customers is “the focus” of pending bills across the country.
“There are many ways in which data-driven pricing can enhance competition and deliver real benefits to consumers, such as discounts in grocery loyalty programs or small businesses offering 10% off when they add an item to their online shopping cart to encourage a completed sale,” Ambrosi said.
Ambrosi said there is “little evidence” that certain shoppers are experiencing price increases because of monitored pricing.
However, in early 2025, the first findings of the Federal Trade Commission’s Surveillance Price Investigation found that an individual’s precise location information and browser history can often be used to target individual consumers with different, and sometimes higher, prices for the same product or service.
Shoppers react to monitored prices
Users discussing the price of surveillance on Reddit had a strong reaction.
“Here is our future, where we will be personally and thoroughly oppressed by corporations. It’s all based on our naivety in allowing all our personal digital information and habits to be bought and used against us every day,” one user wrote.
But another person argued that state bans on the practice would be “like throwing out the baby with the bath water…legislate bad practices, don’t ban tools.”
How is dynamic pricing different from monitored pricing?
Dynamic pricing is often referred to as surge pricing, or prices that increase based on supply and demand. Owens said the terms dynamic pricing and surveillance pricing are starting to be “conflated” and some people are starting to use them interchangeably, even though they are different.
But Owens said both practices can lead to higher prices.
“Surveillance pricing is at the intersection of two things that Americans really hate: being fooled and being spied on,” Owens said.
Given the affordability crisis facing many Americans, Owens said, this “is an added insult: not just high prices, but unfair prices, unpredictable prices.”
Betty Lin-Fisher is a consumer reporter for USA TODAY. Contact her at blinfisher@USATODAY.com or follow her at @blinfisher on X, Facebook and Instagram and @blinfisher.bsky.social on Bluesky.. Sign up for our free The Daily Money newsletter, breaking down complex consumer and financial news. Subscribe here.
