And yet, no calls to ban algorithmic price discrimination in areas where it is really, really bad
- health care costs
- wage discrimination
I have seen some conversation about the wage issue.
QuoteThe idea that grocery companies are charging different people different prices based on their past purchases sounds like a futuristic dystopia.
There are areas of our economy where pricing is widely seen as variable depending on factors (wages, rent, real-estate, cars, health care, income tax) and areas were it is not (groceries, tolls, hotel rooms, tires, gas). Many of the things in the latter category *are* negotiable, but they are not seen as such.
When something moves from one category to the other, people get pissed. It works in both directions: Saturn sales people really struggled with not being able to haggle. It took Tesla for people to accept a fixed price on a car.
Anyway,
> anti-surveillance
This seems to be THE trigger lately. Flock is a tiny part of the problem. Groceries are a tiny part of the problem.
But when the invisible is made visible (i.e. makes the news), it creates rich targets.
For the most part, though, I see all this as a "straw in the sea turtle" problem. People saw those pictures and went out and bought metal straws, which was not a very helpful response in terms of direct impacts, but it did help people become mindful of ocean pollution. But then it fizzled because there simply wasn't a constant flood of viral ocean pollution stories.
Surveillance, however, has the potential for a non-stop flood of viral stories. It's strange what makes a story tip. Groceries are an obvious flash point, but why Flock all of the sudden?
The key is for these stories to keep coming and coming and coming and work their way up the food chain.
At the end of the day, legislators have to fear their voters more than they fear their donors before they take action.
My region of the state was infamous for large scale, commercial bootlegging well into the early 70s. We also are home to the regional federal courthouse....
In the 60s a known, big-time bootlegger kept evading the alcohol tax agents & sheriffs so they 'Capone-ed' him ---the IRS did a net-worth audit and fined him heavily for tax evasion. He paid it off in cash. My dad's comment has stuck with me; They can't track cash.
But now we'll have to factor in facial recognition, so I'll have to go to the grocery store with a wad of cash & wearing a (different, random) ski mask.