NPR.

When you walk into a store, you're probably used to seeing price tags on everything.

A little sticker or a sign that says to every customer, here is what the product costs.

But when you shop online, there is no price tag.

There's just the price you see on screen.

And because of that, do you ever wonder whether the price that you see is the same as what

others are seeing?

Like, could companies use your online data, like your location and browsing history,

to charge you more than somebody else?

Sounds fishy, but the short answer is yes.

It's a practice called personalized pricing, though to critics, it has a more sinister name,

surveillance pricing. This is the indicator for has a more sinister name, surveillance pricing.

This is the indicator for Planet Money. I'm Adrienne Ma. And I'm Darren Woods.

Surveillance pricing was in the news recently after Delta Airlines said it's been using AI to set some ticket prices. And even though Delta says it does not engage in personalized or surveillance pricing,

that hasn't stopped some lawmakers from wanting to ban the practice. So today on the show,

we wade into this debate. Is surveillance pricing as bad as it sounds? And what, if anything,

should we do about it?

There's a lot going on right now.

Mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air.

I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's On the Media.

Want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that

led us here and maybe how to head them off at the pass? That's on the media's specialty.

...