The Dystopian Future of Price Discrimination

Have you ever been to a bazaar, where a hawker offers something at a special price, “just for you?” The world of online retail is getting ready to take the practice to a whole new level -- and it doesn’t take much speculation to see how things could go terribly wrong.

Let’s start offline. There are tons of rules about what an old-fashioned retail store can do with prices. Although they vary by state, they tend to impose a reasonably sound standard: You can’t change the price depending on the customer. Stores in different places can charge different prices (as Starbucks does), but in a given store the display price applies to everyone -- at least if you don’t count coupons, membership deals or bulk orders.