CALGARY — Do you ever feel like you're being watched at the grocery store?You might be — as grocers have begun collecting your personal online data to manipulate prices to fit your individual buying patterns.On Monday, the new leader of the federal NDP party, Avi Lewis, called on Prime Minister Mark Carney and his government to "implement a national ban on surveillance pricing."Companies have free rein over this data — over your shopping habits, online activity, and viewing patterns — which is often processed by algorithms that either directly set prices or suggest prices to be set in real time..This may come as a shock to some readers, but it shouldn't.Companies have been doing this for years.As the Food Professor, Sylvain Charlebois, writes on his Substack, airlines, hotels, event ticketing and ride-sharing platforms have been tracking and altering prices based on individual data for years.What is new is grocery price surveillance — which breaks "the social contract around food pricing" that "has long been grounded in predictability and fairness," stated Charlebois..This is not just an online issue — it's occurring at physical locations too. Stores are adopting electronic shelf labels (ESLs), allowing grocers to update prices in person at the shelf using a mobile app, eliminating the need for paper tags.Prices can then change and vary by location, timing, and consumer profile. In September 2025, a non-profit called Consumer Reports (CR), investigated the phenomenon by dividing up over 400 volunteers into groups, each one shopping for an identical basket of groceries on Instacart, a delivery service..They all either ordered their items from Safeway or Target.Only one of the groups did their shopping in person at physical stores, to compare with the online findings. The shoppers put all the items in their carts, screenshotting the prices without purchasing the items. Of the products, 75% were offered at different prices to different customers — the variation ranged from as little as seven cents to $2.56 USD per item..One of the shopper groups' price variation was significant — with the same items in their shopping cart, their totals ranged from $114.34 to $123.93. This price difference can add up to an extra $1,200 annually.Experts told CR Instacart's price adjustments gave the company insight into how much customers were willing to pay — how "price sensitive" they were.They explained if retailers became adept to knowing what consumers are willing to pay, these estimates will end up maximizing their profits..To conduct this price surveillance, Instacart had been using the AI pricing tool Eversight, which they acquired in 2022 but stopped using in December 2025.Instacart claimed the AI could increase sales by 1-3% and generate an additional 2-5% in profit.Although Instacart, which is also available in Canada, no longer uses the AI tool, other retail grocers still do..Walmart uses ESLs in many of their stores and so does Sobeys — with its stores expected to roll out ESLs at the end of April.But, how did this all begin?One truth which technology seems to be no exception to — nothing in life comes for free.The origin of this data collection, as the Yale Journal of Regulation explains, can be mostly credited to the evolution of social media.The use of these platforms was "free" thanks to the cost users had to pay — through the secret exchange of vast amounts of data the companies were collecting from them..This means every interaction, every like, post, mouse movement, comment, video watched, scroll pattern, and social connection — was feeding an algorithm which adapted and delivered highly targeted ads.What's even crazier (and only a bit creepy) mobile devices tracked users by capturing precise geolocation data throughout daily activities — with a little cherry on top, data could also be collected via internet devices like vacuum cleaners, thermostats, fitness bands, and security systems.They're watching you always — and this is how third-party data brokers and trackers turn a profit.Third parties collected, aggregated and sold highly personalized profiles of individuals , which purchased and sold in milliseconds through bidding. .What really changed the game was the 2022 launch of ChatGPT, many other large language models followed, becoming embedded into search engines, virtual assistants, productivity tools, and others. This is how personalized data got to the point we are presently — with grocers falling in line with numerous other companies ready to manipulate prices.Now, companies do not even have to rely on third-party trackers but can use first-party trackers through AI.Now to find out what Canada, or at least some of its provinces, are doing about it. .Manitoba has already announced the proposed Bill 49, which would add transparency around algorithmic-based pricing.The bill proposed in March, would require algorithmic pricing to be disclosed to consumers during transactions — this law would apply to physical retail stores and online stores.As for what Charlebois believes about grocers' use of algorithmic pricing he says, "If two people buy the same food, from the same store, at the same time, they should pay the same price. Full stop.""If pricing experiments exist, consumers should be told. And if fairness cannot be guaranteed for essential goods, regulators should intervene—decisively."As of the date published, no other province has announced proposed regulations around price surveillance.
