Your Browsing History May Be Raising Your Grocery Prices #surveillance #shocking
The short version: Business Reform's video on surveillance pricing is a reminder that data harvesting isn't just about ads — it's reshaping prices, and the same profiling logic powers ALPR networks like Flock.
Our Take
Credit to Business Reform for connecting dots a lot of people miss: the shift from basic dynamic pricing to full-blown "surveillance pricing" isn't some far-off hypothetical, it's the natural end point of normalized mass data collection. Once companies accept that profiling your behavior is fair game for setting a grocery price, there's no principled reason that same logic stops at the checkout line. It bleeds into insurance quotes, loan terms, and yes, how local governments justify blanketing neighborhoods with automated license plate readers under the banner of "public safety."
That's the throughline we track here at DeFlock. Flock Safety's ALPR network doesn't set prices, but it runs on the identical premise: harvest enough location and behavioral data on ordinary people, and you can build a profile, flag an anomaly, or make a decision about someone without ever having to justify it to them directly. Whether it's a retailer deciding what you pay or a police department deciding whose movements get logged and shared across a nationwide database, the public almost never gets to see the rules, let alone contest them. Opacity is the business model in both cases.
If surveillance pricing makes your stomach turn, ALPR surveillance deserves the same scrutiny — it's happening in your town right now, often with zero public vote. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your street, and visit our take-action page for ways to push back before this kind of quiet profiling becomes even more entrenched.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Business Reform, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.