If you’re near Rochester, New York, the price for a carton of Target’s Good & Gather eggs is listed as $1.99 on its website. If you’re in Manhattan’s upscale Tribeca neighborhood, that price changes to $2.29. It’s unclear why the prices differ, but a new notice on Target’s website offers a potential hint: “This price was set by an algorithm using your personal data.”
A recently enacted New York State law requires businesses that algorithmically set prices using customers’ personal data to disclose that. According to the law, personal data includes any data that can be “linked or reasonably linked, directly or indirectly, with a specific consumer or device.” The law doesn’t require businesses to explicitly state what information about a person or device is being used or how each piece of information affects the final price a customer sees. The law includes a carve-out for the use of location data strictly to calculate cab or rideshare fares based on mileage and trip duration but not for other purposes.
The law also requires that the disclosure is “clear and conspicuous.” Target’s disclosure is not the easiest to find–a customer would have to know to click the “i” icon next to the price of an item, then scroll to the bottom of the pop-up. In the past, the courts have held that it’s not always reasonable to assume that a customer will click on “more information” links when it’s not required.
I don’t think Target is either complying with the law nor violating it; I don’t think it applies whatsoever and they just added the disclosure anyway.I no longer know who to believe so I’ll just assume they are all a bunch of lying arseholes at our expense.Different stores have different prices based on geolocation. There’s nothing new with that. But if that reflects on the website, an algorithm didn’t use personal data to determine anything.
What I do think, besides incompetence, may be a desensitizing campaign numbing customers to the practice possibly for a future rollout or drum up opposition.
EDIT: Instarget is fucking about. “At a Target in North Canton, Ohio, Skippy peanut butter was $2.99 for some shoppers and $3.59 for others. The full 20-item basket varied by about 7% within each store.” “An Instacart spokeswoman said retailers on its platform set their own prices… A Target spokesman said the company is not affiliated with Instacart and bears no responsibility for prices on the platform.” https://groundworkcollaborative.org/work/instacart/