Today, as first reported by The Washington Post, a group of think tanks, consumer interest groups, and academics released a new report and regulatory framework to combat the rise of surveillance pricing and wage discrimination.
The report and framework, “Prohibiting Surveillance Prices and Wages,” was developed by the AI Now Institute, American Economic Liberties Project, Commonwealth, Coworker, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Future of Workers Initiative, Groundwork Collaborative, National Employment Law Project, Open Markets Institute, Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, State Innovation Exchange, TechEquity, Towards Justice, Veena Dubal, Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine, and Zephyr Teachout, Professor of Law, Fordham Law School.
“The same technologies that corporations use to surveil consumers and jack up prices are also being used to cheat workers out of a fair wage,” said Groundwork’s Executive Director Lindsay Owens. “This report gives states a framework on how to most effectively crack down on these predatory practices, protect fair pricing, and allow workers the opportunity to earn a just wage. With the cost of living skyrocketing, the last thing consumers need is big corporations spying on them to figure out how to most effectively rip them off.”
“Workers were the practice round for surveillance technologies; companies are now going for gold with consumers,” said Katie Wells, Groundwork’s Director of Research and Senior Fellow. “Workers shouldn’t be paid differently for the very same shifts. And parents shouldn’t be charged extra for kids’ Tylenol because an app tracked them searching for flu symptoms. This new report shows that Silicon Valley’s ideas about how we set wages and prices can be stopped.”
Also, join Groundwork on Wednesday, March 5 at 12:00 p.m. ET, for a luncheon and panel discussion to launch the latest Fairwork U.S. Report: “When AI Eats the Manager” — which evaluates the working conditions of 11 of the largest digital platforms in the U.S. You can register here.
Email press@groundworkcollaborative.org to speak with one of Groundwork’s experts about surveillance pricing and wage discrimination.
SUMMARY
Surveillance prices and wage discrimination threaten privacy, exacerbate discrimination, facilitate corporate control, hurt small businesses, and transfer wealth from people to powerful corporations.
The report, “Prohibiting Surveillance Prices and Wages,” details how surveillance prices and wages work; what harms they may cause; and what legal tools are currently available to combat them. Thus far, the patchwork of competition laws, consumer protection laws, privacy and data protection laws, anti-discrimination laws, and worker protection laws are inadequate for combatting the threat of surveillance pricing and wage discrimination.
The report calls on the states to act decisively and ban these practices outright and introduces five core principles to guide future government action:
The full report can be read here.