This Chrome Extension Protects You from ‘Price Steering’ in Online Shopping
BostInno - 12/12/2016
An experienced online shopper will tell you to always search for purchases – whether it be a gift for your mom or a flight – in an incognito window. There’s a reason for that, and it’s called price discrimination.
Companies can use consumers’ online data to determine what they’re looking to buy and will hike up the prices of those items when these individuals go to purchase them. It happens without shoppers even knowing about it. That is, until now. A team of researchers at Northeastern University just launched a Google Chrome extension, Price Comparison, that promises to let consumers know when they could be encountering online price discrimination.
An experienced online shopper will tell you to always search for purchases – whether it be a gift for your mom or a flight – in an incognito window. There’s a reason for that, and it’s called price discrimination.
Companies can use consumers’ online data to determine what they’re looking to buy and will hike up the prices of those items when these individuals go to purchase them. It happens without shoppers even knowing about it. That is, until now. A team of researchers at Northeastern University just launched a Google Chrome extension, Price Comparison, that promises to let consumers know when they could be encountering online price discrimination.
