Seattle moves to ban algorithmic 'surveillance pricing' in grocery stores

In Seattle, a city council proposal to ban algorithmic grocery pricing has surfaced a tension as old as commerce itself: who decides what something is worth, and on what terms. The practice — using personal data to set individualized prices — sits at the crossroads of privacy rights and economic access, where protecting one may quietly erode the other. As the city moves toward a ban, it joins a growing number of communities asking whether the data-driven marketplace serves the public good, or merely the appearance of it.