Instacart reaches into your pocket and lops a third off your dollars
a day ago
- #algorithmic-discrimination
- #corporate-exploitation
- #surveillance-pricing
- Instacart uses surveillance pricing to charge customers different prices based on their desperation and financial status.
- Algorithmic price discrimination disproportionately affects marginalized communities, particularly Black and brown individuals in food deserts.
- Companies like Instacart and Dollar General exploit economic vulnerabilities through A/B testing and price optimization.
- Worker optimization includes practices like noncompete agreements, training repayment agreements, and algorithmic wage discrimination.
- Efforts to combat surveillance pricing include banning commercial surveillance and implementing stronger privacy laws.
- New York and California have introduced weak regulations on algorithmic pricing, but stronger measures are needed.
- Former FTC chair Lina Khan and others are working to ban algorithmic pricing and regulate harmful business practices.
- The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau under Biden took steps to curb data brokers, but these efforts were halted under Trump.
- Privacy-first policies and coalition-building are essential to address the root causes of surveillance pricing.
- The article highlights the need for systemic change to protect consumers and workers from exploitative corporate practices.