FTC Is Shocked That Marketers Use Consumer Data
Jamie from our Department of the Obvious is thrilled at this Federal Trade Commission interim report which finds that “details like a person’s precise location or browser history can be frequently used to target individual consumers with different prices for the same goods and services.” To quote the press release, “Staff found that consumer behaviors ranging from mouse movements on a webpage to the type of products that consumers leave unpurchased in an online shopping cart can be tracked and used by retailers to tailor consumer pricing.” Pearl clutching notwithstanding, the discovery will likely be buried when the current, pro-consumer leadership at the FTC leaves for oligarch-friendly replacements.