Have you ever shopped around online to find the best possible deal, clicked the checkout button, walked away smug at your sleuthing – only to find someone else got the same thing from the same place for an even cheaper price?
This is the result of personalised pricing: also known as “dynamic pricing” or “price discrimination”, depending on who you ask. By collecting data about your habits online, and employing algorithms to analyse that data, businesses can charge you what they predict you are willing to pay for their goods and services. The catch is, this is not always the same as the lowest price they are willing to sell for. It may even be above the market value of the thing you’re buying.
