Cybersecurity Policy Report, Citing Privacy Risks, Rep. Pallone Launches ‘Surveillance Pricing’ Probe, (May 13, 2026)
The use of personal data to set retail prices—known as “surveillance pricing”—is being investigated by Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D., N.J.), ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Pallone announced yesterday.
In letters to 25 retailers, Rep. Pallone said he was “very concerned about companies potentially using Americans’ personal data to determine what prices they see and pay, and I am opening an inquiry into just how widespread this practice is.”
“Consumers deserve to know if businesses are using their personal information to manipulate the prices they pay or experiment with algorithms to set the prices they see,” he said.
Surveillance pricing relies on the lack of comprehensive legal protections for consumer privacy in the U.S., he noted. “Existing federal law does not sufficiently protect Americans’ data from misuse or adequately address consumer privacy concerns in surveillance pricing,” Rep. Pallone said.
“Americans seem completely unaware that the prices they are paying, particularly and most notably when shopping online, might have been set using their own personal data,” he added.
He told the letters’ recipients he was seeking to “understand the scope of the surveillance pricing ecosystem and any information your company is collecting, purchasing, using, selling, or aggregating.”
He set a May 26 deadline for the recipients of the letter to respond to a long list of questions, including the “data elements” being used to set prices, how the retailers obtain data, and whether customers are informed about data collection or surveillance pricing.
The letters’ recipients include major grocery store chains such as Albertsons Cos., Inc., dollar stores, general retailers such as Target Corp., and online retailers such as Amazon.com, Inc.
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