EPIC Supports Massachusetts Bill to Prohibit Surveillance Pricing Based on Biometric Information

This week, EPIC Senior Counsel Sara Geoghegan testified in support of a bill banning surveillance pricing in front of the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Advanced Information Technology, the Internet and Cybersecurity. The bill,  H.99 and S.49, An Act Relative To Surveillance Pricing In Grocery Stores, prohibits grocery stores from using surveillance pricing based directly or indirectly on biometric information collected on their premises.

EPIC has explained that surveillance pricing, or the practice of changing prices for the same good based on a person’s browsing history and personal information—which results in two people seeing two different prices for the same product—is unfair and invasive. In her testimony, Geoghegan said, “This is a practice in which companies extract and exploit our personal information to charge us the highest price we are willing to pay. This is corporations increasing their profits while taking money out of our pockets.”

In the same hearing, EPIC Deputy Director Caitriona Fitzgerald testified in support of the Massachusetts Consumer Data Privacy Act (MCDPA) and the Massachusetts Data Privacy Act (MDPA). She explained that both bills contain strong data minimization rules, restrictions on the sale of sensitive data, and a private right of action.

Watch EPIC’s testimony here.

EPIC tirelessly advocates for stronger consumer privacy laws in the absence of federal protections. EPIC and Consumer Reports recently re-released the State Data Privacy Act a model bill that has been proposed in multiple state legislatures.