A lawsuit was filed Thursday in Washington, D.C., on behalf of people who say their personal data was used by the Washington Post to jack up prices on their subscriptions. The suit is seeking class action status. Some subscribers first started getting a notice in March that their Washington Post subscriptions would become more expensive, with the bottom of the email reading: “This price was set by an algorithm using your personal data.”
The practice of adjusting prices for individuals based on their personal information—including things like sex, age, income, and browsing history, among other factors—is known as surveillance pricing, a topic that’s become a hot-button issue in the 2020s as businesses seek to squeeze every possible penny out of consumers and their data. The disclosure that an algorithm was used by the Washington Post was probably only included because New York passed a law in 2025 that consumers must be notified when that happens. Many other states have surveillance pricing legislation under consideration, and Maryland recently became the first to ban surveillance pricing at grocery stores, though consumer advocates believe it has too many loopholes.
Tim Giordano, partner at Clarkson Law Firm, which brought the suit, told Gizmodo his clients are first suing under the DC Consumer Protection Procedures Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive consumer practices. Virtually every state has a similar statute.
