At some point your lack of tracking itself becomes a data point. When someone shows up to a website who is a complete data ghost, the site has to figure out how to react to that. I could see companies saying, "well, if someone has no record, there's two possibilities. Either one, they're chronically homeless and are living completely off the grid. Or two, they're somehow who goes to great lengths to hide their tracks. In the former case, we can ignore them when setting our prices, as they can't afford our product anyway. In the latter case, we can charge them the maximum, as wealthy people can more afford to care about their privacy, and the person avoiding the tracking will probably assume we're actually giving them the better deal."

I imagine most such systems would be set up so that by default the maximum price is charged, and it's only lowered if tracking data is available to suggest a lower price is more likely to create a more profitable sale.

Anecdotal, but I've been using Fauxx for a month or two and have noticed that ads I see (those few that manage to get through my blockers) are more generic, don't apply to my demographic, or are even in a language I don't speak.

I do practice basic data privacy, but I think that data poisoning also has a positive impact in obscuring your digital footprint. There will always be data from when I was less privacy-minded, so I feel it'll be more effective to both create a vacuum and fill that void with junk data.

I’d also like to know. Sellers can know when you’re using a popular VPN service or have DeGoogled, but I don’t know how they may use that information. Perhaps they’ll try to punish you into submission by jacking prices to the moon or refusing to serve their website altogether. Reddit and some other sites already block VPNs.

There will never be a silver bullet, because this will be an endless arms race between sellers and savvy consumers.

Does anybody have any info/ opnions on whether creating a data vacuum through VPN usage and degoogling affects your digital footprint in terms of these surveillance pricing?

Info no. Opinions yes!

It make sense to me, that if you lack a big digital footprint, they will give the highest price.

They always call these discounts, not extra fees. Put the tracker in your car, get cheaper car insurance! Use our club card, enjoy discounted groceries! They don't call it an extra cost if you don't. Even though it's mathematically the same! I think there may even be a legal difference. There is certainly a psychological difference between "you get charged extra" which nobody wants, and "get a discount". Yayyyy! Who doesn't enjoy a discount???

Also, they want to make the attractive choice, the one that gives them the most data. So they will crank up the pain for ppl who opt out of the surveilence.

There is a glimmer of hope tho! Basically NOBODY likes this suveilence pricing. There are 24 US states that have pending bills to ban the practice. Maryland have passed theirs already. This is another case where writing to our reps makes a difference.

The truth is no one except those inside the companies determining pricing really knows. And it can change at anytime if they find some new price discrimination data point to exploit. In the video they say it basically comes down to a desperation score.

My guess/sense at this moment is that it’s slightly better as the type of person willing to learn and explore the privacy options and settings and have a little extra income to put towards them will be aware of shopping alternatives and therefore have a lower desperation score

Super question. 👍🏼