Scene Hook
When I first heard about 'surveillance pricing,' I got chills — because I'd previously used a 'smart pricing' plugin without ever checking how it actually calculated prices.
What It Is + Who's Already Using It
'Surveillance pricing' means using AI to analyze customers' personal data — browsing history, purchase records, even what phone they use — to set different prices for each person. Note: this isn't about giving new customers discounts. It's the opposite — the more someone looks willing to pay, the higher their price. Major grocery chains and e-commerce platforms are already doing this. Maryland's new law bans this practice in groceries. My friend Ajie, who runs e-commerce in Hangzhou, discovered last year that his SaaS pricing tool had 'user profile markup' enabled by default. He was overcharging old customers for three months before he noticed — sitting in a café, showing me the backend data while cursing his own carelessness.
Replicate Cost Today
Money: $0 (learning about this costs nothing). Time: 30 minutes to check your current pricing tool's settings. Technical barrier: No coding needed — just be able to read a settings page. First step: Open your e-commerce/course/subscription backend, find 'pricing' or 'price rules,' and check for toggles labeled 'dynamic pricing,' 'personalized pricing,' or 'user profiling.'
Advice by Stage
If you're just starting out: If you're still pricing manually, no rush to touch any AI pricing tools. Get one fixed price working first — this tool isn't for everyone.
If you have 1-2 customers: Spend 10 minutes checking whether your platform has dynamic pricing enabled by default. Turn it off, or at least understand how it adjusts prices — when a customer catches inconsistent pricing, the cost of explaining far exceeds the extra margin.
If you're scaling: Before considering dynamic pricing to boost profits, think clearly: short-term gains are real, but once trust breaks, it's hard to fix. Maryland started this, other regions may follow. Transparent pricing early on could actually become your selling point.