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Manitoba Moves to Outlaw Algorithmic Pricing—a First in Canada | The Walrus (thewalrus.ca)

submitted 17 hours ago by a_gee_dizzle@lemmy.ca to c/manitoba@lemmy.ca

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For those unaware: algorithmic pricing is the practice of using data about a user to change how much to charge them. For example if a company buys your data and realizes that you just got paid, or that you’re that you’re really desperate for whatever product, or whatever, then they will charge you more. Usually this is done by a company requiring you to download an app so that you can “see” the prices, though it can be done more inconspicuously with online shopping.

This practice is becoming common in some areas. So its good to hear that Manitoba will be the first jurisdiction in Canada to outlaw the practice.

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[–] streetfestival@lemmy.ca 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

It'll be great to shut it (!), but ride share apps (eg, uber) have already blown this door open. Not just surge pricing (ie, when there's high demand on the app, which doesn't use individual data per se). But folks, mostly with mobility issues, have told me that once they start making the same trip regularly in an app (eg, to the grocery store and back weekly) then that trip starts gets significantly more expensive for them in the app

[–] a_gee_dizzle@lemmy.ca 2 points 16 hours ago

I wonder if this would mean that Uber and Lyft will need to change how they charge people in Manitoba. I think you could make a case that its not the same though, because basing price based off availability of drivers is not necessarily the same as using personal data about a user to tailor the price to them specifically. In the first case it applies to everyone using the service at that time, in the second case it still varies person to person