Hi everyone,
This week on Shared Security, we discuss surveillance pricing — the idea that the price you see may be shaped by what companies know, infer, or buy about you.
This is different from the old “airline tickets get more expensive when demand is high” version of dynamic pricing. Surveillance pricing is personal: shopping history, location data, loyalty-program behavior, household assumptions, income signals, and AI-driven ad targeting can all become part of the price or discount someone sees.
The grocery-store angle matters because food is not optional. Loyalty programs may save you money, but they also create detailed records of what you buy, when you buy it, where you shop, and how predictable your habits are.
The practical takeaway is not “never use a loyalty card.” It is to understand the tradeoff, check privacy settings, compare prices when logged in and logged out, limit location access, and avoid handing retailers more personal information than they actually need.
Links from the episode
EPIC — New Jersey Legislature Passes Grocery Surveillance Pricing Ban: https://epic.org/new-jersey-legislature-passes-grocery-surveillance-pricing-ban/
Schneier on Security — Papa Johns Surveillance-Based Advertising: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/07/papa-johns-surveillance-based-advertising.html
EFF — California’s Bill to Ban Surveillance Pricing: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/06/californias-bill-ban-surveillance-pricing
Quote from this week’s episode
Assume that these loyalty programs and shopping apps are data collection systems.
— Tom Eston
Tom’s take
Surveillance pricing is one of those privacy issues that sounds abstract until it touches groceries, delivery apps, prescriptions, travel, or other everyday purchases. If companies can use detailed behavioral profiles to decide what you pay, then privacy is no longer just about hiding embarrassing data. It becomes a fairness and consumer-protection issue too.
Also worth your attention this week
ICE + Thomson Reuters data purchase — 404 Media reports ICE plans to buy access to Thomson Reuters data including names, SSNs, ethnicity, social posts, and geolocation — a blunt example of commercial data becoming government surveillance infrastructure. Source: https://www.404media.co/ice-to-pay-thomson-reuters-125-million-to-find-voter-fraud/
Flock ends audio “distress detection” rollout — EFF says Flock ended a public-microphone pilot that could summon police after detecting human distress, showing that pushback can still slow ambient surveillance creep. Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/victory-flock-ends-rollout-audio-distress-detection-human-voices
San Francisco pressures Apple and Google over AI nudify apps — WIRED reports San Francisco’s city attorney demanded app-store action against AI face-swap/nudify apps, raising platform accountability questions around foreseeable abuse. Source: https://www.wired.com/story/san-francisco-demands-apple-and-google-delete-ai-nudify-apps-from-app-stores/
Listen / Watch
🎧 Audio Podcast: https://sharedsecurity.net/2026/07/20/surveillance-pricing-when-your-data-sets-the-price/
▶️ YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/B9mxJXkerWA
We’d love your feedback
Have you ever noticed different prices or discounts when logged in, using a loyalty card, changing location, or shopping from a different device? Reply and tell us what you saw.
Thank you to our sponsors!
Special thanks to Guardsquare for sponsoring this episode! Guardsquare is the leader in mobile application security, with multi-layered protection for your Android and iOS apps. Learn more at Guardsquare.com.
🎁 Get 10% off your order of high quality faraday products built to protect your privacy from SLNT! Visit: https://slnt.com and use discount code "sharedsecurity" at checkout.
Closing
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Stay safe, stay secure, and stay private.
Tom Eston
Founder and Host, Shared Security Podcast
