Are You Paying More Than Your Neighbour?
Imagine buying groceries online and noticing a friend paid $3 less for the exact same item — same store, same day, different price. It sounds far-fetched, but it's a reality that's quietly spreading across Canadian retail, and one of the country's most prominent tech voices is urging Ottawa to take notice.
Jim Balsillie, the co-founder of BlackBerry and one of Canada's most outspoken digital-rights advocates, is raising fresh alarms about what he calls surveillance pricing — the practice of using personal data harvested from your browsing history, location, device, and shopping behaviour to set individualized prices in real time.
How Algorithmic Pricing Works
At its core, surveillance pricing is an extension of dynamic pricing, the familiar model airlines and hotels have used for decades to charge more when demand is high. But modern algorithmic pricing goes several steps further.
Retailers and digital platforms now deploy machine-learning models that ingest vast pools of consumer data — income estimates, past purchases, ZIP codes, loyalty program histories, even the type of device you're using — and use that information to determine the maximum price a specific individual is likely to pay before abandoning their cart.
The result: two Canadians shopping on the same website at the same moment could see meaningfully different prices, with no indication that this is happening.
"This is not just dynamic pricing — it's weaponized data," Balsillie argued in a recent interview with CBC Radio's Front Burner. "You are being profiled and charged accordingly."
A Canadian Problem With Canadian Consequences
For Canadians already stretched by years of elevated inflation, the concern is not abstract. Grocery prices remain stubbornly high. Housing costs are crushing first-time buyers. And Canadians are among the most connected, data-generating consumers in the world — which means they generate exactly the raw material these pricing algorithms feed on.
Balsillie has long argued that Canada lacks sufficient legal frameworks to govern how personal data is commercialized. The federal privacy reform bill, Bill C-27, has inched through Parliament for years without passing, leaving a regulatory gap that tech firms and large retailers can exploit.
"We have an economy that's increasingly extracting value from Canadians' data and not returning it to them," Balsillie said. "Surveillance pricing is one of the most direct examples of that extraction."
What Could Be Done?
Several policy levers could limit the practice. Stronger consent requirements under a modernized privacy law would force companies to disclose when individualized pricing is in use. Price transparency mandates — similar to rules already proposed by regulators in the European Union — could require retailers to show consumers the "base price" alongside any personalized rate they're being offered.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into surveillance pricing in 2024, targeting eight major retail and data-analytics firms. Canada has no equivalent inquiry underway.
Consumer advocacy groups have called on the Competition Bureau to examine whether algorithmic price discrimination constitutes an unfair trade practice under existing law — a move Balsillie has supported publicly.
What Consumers Can Do Now
While policy catches up, privacy researchers suggest a few practical steps: use private browsing mode, clear cookies regularly, avoid logging into retailer accounts before comparing prices, and use a VPN to obscure your location. None of these are foolproof, but they reduce the data profile that feeds personalized pricing engines.
The deeper issue, as Balsillie frames it, is that individual countermeasures shouldn't be necessary. The burden of protecting Canadians from exploitative pricing practices belongs with regulators — and the clock is ticking.
Source: CBC Radio, Front Burner
