Via America’s Lawyer: Tech giants are being accused of using your personal search data to increase the prices of items that you want to buy online. Mike Papantonio and Farron Cousins discuss. Then, Mike Papantonio is joined by RT Correspondent Brigida Santos to discuss how an alleged cult leader is accused of running a sex-cult pyramid scheme that enslaved women. Become a member today!:
Support us by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon, and help keep progressive media alive!:
Find our merchandise at Teespring:
Spread the word! LIKE and SHARE this video or leave a comment to help direct attention to the stories that matter. And SUBSCRIBE to stay connected with Ring of Fire's video content!
Support Ring of Fire by subscribing to our YouTube channel:
Be sociable! Follow us on:
Facebook:
Twitter:
Google+:
Instagram:
Follow more of our stories at
Subscribe to our podcast:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Tech giants are being accused of using your personal search data to increase the prices of items that you want to buy online. And unfortunately what's happening here is this has turned into a whole new industry, an industry where the digital industry understands everything about you. How much money you make, where you live, what's the demographic, and they use that now to price things for you. Uber got caught doing it. They had information from Uber that says, well, we've, we know this guy has money so we're going to charge him more for this ride. Pick it up.
What's happening right now is that everything is connected. If you have a cell phone, if you have a, a laptop or a computer or anything you get on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, whatever it is, Linkedin, if you're still on that, everything is talking to each other, all of the other sites. So when you go shopping online, as most of the public does now, that organization, that company, whatever it is, their website, as soon as you log in there, they have already pulled every piece of information that is available on you. They know your race. They know your gender, they know your religion.
Why is it important? Because when you go to buy something, they know how to price it for you. If you're going to buy an airline ticket, how many times have you gone on check the price of an airline ticket, next thing you look at, it jumps $1,000? Airline industry got, got caught doing that. But look, I gotta tell you this Alternet article. I wish I knew who wrote this article. It's excellent. And they talk about this concept of behavioral advertising. And in here, he's whoever, whoever wrote this, I mean, he or she says, look, you know, I'm okay if I'm going to go buy a new bike and all of a sudden I'm inundated with different kinds of bikes.
But I'm really bothered by when that bike comes in, they understand I'm part of the affluent America, therefore I'm going to charge more because I know all of your demographics. I know where you vacation. I know what kind of home you live in, so I know I can charge you more for that bike. This, this, this writer nails this so well. It's, it's, it's a, it's in Alternet. It's called how, how big tech is, is, is spying in your wallet. You know, how are they, how are they spying on your wallet?
Well, to me what's really remarkable here is the fact that this is not technically legal. We are talking about price discrimination. You know, if you live up north, you're going to pay more for something like snow tires than you would in the south. And it's not a supply and demand issue. It's because they can. So when you break those basic economic rules, I know they're not legal laws, but when you break those basic economic rules, you do run the chance of running afoul of the law and saying, we're charging more just because we think we know where you're located or you, we saw that you purchased a ticket to go snow skiing, but you live in Miami, so you may want to buy these snow tires. We're jacking up the price for you for this one time purchase.
This Alternet author, again, I can't, this is wonderful work. This is very, very good journalism right here. Says that, he says, for example, in the past, salesmen have had to do, had to go through this qualifying process. Can you afford this? Should I try to sell you this upper end car, middle level car, low end car? They say, now they have all the information.
#rof #trofire #theringoffire #progressivenews
0 Comments