McNair Summer Research Program
Faculty Mentor(s)
Kobi Finestone
Publication Date
Summer 8-7-2026
Disciplines
Applied Ethics | Behavioral Economics | Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics | Economic History | Economic Theory | Political Economy | Public Economics
Description, Abstract, or Artist's Statement
Surveillance pricing is a method of price discrimination in which firms use personal data to set individualized prices. While this practice is often criticized on grounds of privacy, unfairness, or exploitation, these objections do not fully explain what is morally objectionable about surveillance pricing. This paper examines surveillance pricing through the lenses of price discrimination, market competition, efficiency, exploitation, and deception. I argue that surveillance pricing is not inherently unethical merely because it results in different consumers paying different prices for the same product. Nor is it necessarily objectionable when it promotes mutually beneficial exchanges and efficient market outcomes. The ethical significance of surveillance pricing depends on how the surveillance that enables it affects consumer decision-making. When firms use personal data in ways that manipulate, deceive, or otherwise undermine consumers' ability to make informed choices, the resulting transactions fail to reflect genuine preferences and voluntary consent. Surveillance pricing is therefore objectionable not because it involves price discrimination, but because it can distort consumer autonomy by exploiting informational asymmetries between firms and consumers.
Included in
Applied Ethics Commons, Behavioral Economics Commons, Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons, Economic History Commons, Economic Theory Commons, Political Economy Commons, Public Economics Commons