@conscious.app: Seattle just passed the first ban in the US on surveillance pricing at grocery stores. Surveillance pricing means a store uses what it knows about you, like what you have bought before, where you live or what you search online, to decide your price. The person next to you can see a different price for the same item. On September 22, 2026, Seattle's city council voted 7 to 2 to ban this at any grocery chain with 20 or more stores, including delivery apps like Instacart. Starting September 1, 2027, those stores cannot use your personal information to set your price. The city pointed to a December 2025 study by Consumer Reports, a nonprofit that investigates companies. It had 437 people shop the same Instacart stores at the same time. Some paid up to 23% more than others for the same item, including at a Seattle Safeway. Stores already keep the information that makes this possible. In May 2025, Consumer Reports found that Kroger, one of the largest grocery chains in the US, builds a profile on each of its roughly 63 million customers, including a guess at their income. One Oregon shopper used a state privacy law to request his Kroger file and got 62 pages. It listed him as a woman with a high school education making $66,000. He is a male engineer earning far more. Kroger says the data decides which coupons and discounts you see. Pricing is one piece of it. Stores are collecting far more about you than what you buy. Some now use facial recognition, cameras on shopping carts and digital shelf tags that change prices from headquarters in seconds. No federal law requires stores to tell you what they collect inside their doors. Buy from companies that don't track you. Use the Conscious Spend app to find ethical companies to support, and see who owns what you buy.

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Sunday 27 September 2026 02:52:45 GMT