Some coupons are regular promotional clips that fill our mailboxes, while others take packaging discounts and track sales cycles to the next level. Either way, a new obstacle to coupon savings is flooding the marketplace.
This obstacle is not easily seen. Because it’s fast, it’s a way to adjust prices for goods and services based on your income, shopping behavior, online activity, and other data points. This practice is known as surveillance pricing, although some refer to it as personalized pricing or algorithmic pricing.
How Coupon Shoppers Are Affected by Price Checks
Price surveillance specifically hurts coupon shoppers by changing the way retailers calculate discounts. Traditionally, when retailers issue coupons in a circular, they always make sure that every customer gets the same discount amount.
However, now algorithms use your personal data to set prices and promotions that are unique to you.
This customized targeting means you may not find the deals you’re used to. In some cases, it may mean you miss out on some sales altogether. If you have a history of buying a certain product regularly, the algorithm may suggest that you will buy it without a coupon. That means paying the full price.
There is a significant lack of transparency with this algorithm-driven pricing model. That makes it difficult to know you’re getting the best deal available because price surveillance makes it difficult to compare prices with other customers.
Despite all these roadblocks, there is still a way to equip consumers with the right information.
Surveillance Pricing Versus Dynamic Pricing
A common method of pricing a product or service, called dynamic pricing, sets the same cost for every customer. Surveillance prices are different.
“The key difference is that dynamic pricing focuses on market-level factors while surveillance pricing is primarily about individual consumers,” it said. Gabriele Vitke, the product marketing team leads the Decodo. “Variable pricing is adjusted based on things like supply and demand, competitive pricing, things like that. Surveillance pricing is adjusted based on download history, someone’s location, and willingness to buy. So, if we take two people in the same city, they’re looking for the exact same thing at the same time, even if their buyer profiles are different, they might see different prices.”
A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report. published last year found that i an algorithmic system may collect real-time information about a person’s browsing and transaction history and present different prices of the same product to different people or groups. However, a year later, the federal government has no plan to deal with surveillance costs.
Surveillance Under the Wrap
“If you don’t know the price of surveillance, it’s because companies don’t want you to know that they do it,” said attorney Shane Lucado, Founder and CEO of InPerSuit. “All the headlines suggest it’s a looming problem, when price monitoring has been secretly installed on many of our e-commerce sites for years.”
The trend is growing.
“Personal pricing has grown significantly beyond airlines and ride-share, and many affluent retailers now have some version of it that works because the unit economy is so compelling that you leave alone,” according to Jackie Swanson, managing partner at Gartner Consulting.
“Brands do it because the spreadsheet says they should, and the technology says they can,” Swanson continues. “The question of consumer confidence rarely enters the room where a decision is made, and product risks accumulate out of sight.”
How Do You Get Tracked Online?
“There are a lot of data points that companies tend to track both for variable rates and mainly for monitoring,” Vitke told Saving Advice. “So, when it comes to surveillance costs, in particular, the first thing will be the purchase history. They can do that with loyalty programs, online accounts, and activities. There are also things like behavioral signs, like your browsing style, what things you want, whether you leave your cart, and the time you spend on the page. There is also IP data and data of IP applications and GPS of your public address consent.”
The way you browse sends a signal to companies and consumers who are watching your behavior.
“This is something companies are starting to do,” Siddiqi told Saving Advice. “They’re tracking consumer behavior with algorithms and they’re able to say, ‘this person looks like they’re in a hurry, so let’s charge them less.'”
However, there is a flip side to that analysis. Differences in behavior may get better value.
Siddiqi says: “The consumer clicks on a few things, then they go to another tab,” says Siddiqi, “We don’t know what the other tab is. We just know they’re not focused on this website, and then they come back two minutes, five minutes later, to look like they’re comparison shopping.”
E-commerce and retail companies aren’t the only ones looking at your data, according to Vitke.
“There are also third-party data vendors who compile consumer profiles and sell them to companies,” said Vitke.
How Do You Get Tracked In The Real World?
Don’t think you can escape surveillance prices by staying away from company websites. Your purchases at brick and mortar stores can also be monitored.
“So, you can say, ‘I’m going to go to my favorite retailer and I’m not going to use my loyalty card, and I’m going to pay in cash. There’s no way they can track me,'” Siddiqi said. “Sure, they can’t track you, but they can track your device.”
In this context, your device could be your cell phone or even that unused loyalty card in your wallet. Siddiqi emphasizes that your purchases will not be tracked, but your location will be.
“There are many companies that develop mobile phone data,” said Siddiqi. “They don’t know it’s you, but they’ll know that people who fit your consumer profile tend to be in the store at this time of day, etc.”
Twisting the Data to Your Will
Vitke’s company has turned the tables on the big retailers by putting together a list of the best times and days to get the best prices at supermarkets and businesses. Decodo’s Dynamic Pricing Index ’25 is free to download in SavingAdvice’s free newsletter. In addition to downloading, the newsletter includes a report and a video on the best times and days to find the best prices in e-commerce stores and stores. Some of those stores include Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Kroger, and Publix.
Are There Any Laws on Surveillance Costs?
The federal government has no laws that directly regulate the cost of surveillance. However, more and more states are taking action. Connecticut and Colorado passed bills this month. Legislation is pending in California and Hawaii. Some states, like Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, and Virginia, have proposals under legislative consideration.
Last month, Maryland became the the first condition to stop price surveillance for large grocery stores and delivery services. The law, which will take effect on October 1, prohibits it the use of personal data to increase the prices of certain individuals.
While Maryland’s law was the first to ban surveillance pricing, New York was the first state to require disclosure. I Algorithmic Pricing Disclosure Act become law on July 8, 2025. It requires companies that use price surveillance to warn consumers that “This price is set by an algorithm using your personal data.”
The legality of the law was challenged by the National Retail Federation (NRF). However, the the suit was dismissed on October 8.
Lawsuits can go both ways, and Lucado sees class actions as a more effective way to combat price surveillance than prosecutions.
“I believe the risk of being sued far outweighs the risk of government regulations,” said Lucado. “Consumers can bring class actions based on existing price discrimination laws…A single class award can cost a medium-sized retailer millions in settlements. Litigation often changes business practices faster than any governing body.”
How Can You Protect Yourself From Price Surveillance?
Avoiding surveillance prices may seem hopeless, but those who watch the big companies watch say otherwise.
“There are a few things buyers can go to,” said Vitke. “First, you browse in incognito mode. When you finish shopping, and especially before you start shopping online, clear your cookies and cache.”
Other recommendations from experts interviewed by SavingAdvice include:
- Compare prices using different browsers. One of the browsers should not be used for social media, email, or other actions that may identify you or your data.
- Block third-party cookies
- Use a VPN (Virtual Private Network)
- Use free price history tools like these:
- Camel Camel Camel – the Amazon price checker.
- Camelmart – the newly launched Walmart price tracker from CamelCamelCamel.
- Keepa – another Amazon price tracker.
- Google Shopping Price Insights – built into the Google Shopping tab, this tool helps you see when the price drops in 30 days.
- To whisper – tracks multiple sellers and includes price drop notifications.
- Watching – tracks e-commerce sites with email price change notifications.
“Avoid clicking on any retargeted ads before your purchase,” Vitke added. “It shows that you are showing a lot of buying interest, which can also cause price changes.”
“The counter-playbook is about not feeding the algorithm what it wants from you,” Swanson argues. “Wait until it comes out to sign in, because account-based pricing usually activates when the system detects you. Watch the gap between ‘your’ price and the public price, because the gap tells you whether the algorithm classifies you as someone willing to pay more. None of this is unreasonable, but it’s a consistent application that keeps the buyer out of the high-paying models.”
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