A new frontier of potential abuse': Is it legitimate to charge someone flying to a funeral more than a leisure traveler?

"The expert wonders what would happen if a customer suffers the death of a relative and receives an email with available funeral services. The airline might know that customer wants to go to a funeral and decide to charge them more. This is one of the new frontiers of potential abuse that we have to be on guard against, she warned."

"A plane ticket doesn't always cost the same. The price can vary depending on the type of seat, the day of the week, the time of the flight, or the time of year, among other things. But what if those facing unforeseen events, such as attending a funeral, were also charged more? That's what Delta Air Lines intended to do: establish personalized prices using artificial intelligence (AI) tools that process each customer's unique data."

Delta Air Lines planned to set personalized ticket prices using AI tools that analyze each customer's unique data, a proposal that provoked criticism and was withdrawn. Surveillance pricing uses collected personal information to charge consumers according to predicted ability or desire to pay, potentially exploiting sensitive situations such as funerals or emergencies. Lina Khan warned that firms could raise prices when customers face crises, calling the practice unacceptable. An FTC report warned that AI-powered personalized pricing can harm competition and consumers and found concerns that algorithms may cause some buyers to pay higher prices. The investigation examined documents from Mastercard, Accenture, and McKinsey.

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