Petition on Surveillance Pricing
To Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Government of Canada:
Whereas:
- Families across Canada are already being squeezed by the rising cost of groceries, housing, and everyday essentials;
- Large corporations are collecting massive amounts of personal data about Canadians — including our online activity, shopping habits, location, and personal information — and using that data to increase their profits;
- Surveillance pricing allows corporations to secretly use algorithms and artificial intelligence to determine what different people pay for the same products and services;
- No Canadian should pay more simply because a company has collected more information about them, profiled their behaviour, guessed their income level, or determined that they can afford to be charged extra;
- Canadians deserve an economy where technology works for people, not one where corporations use hidden algorithms and personal data to squeeze more money out of families;
- The Manitoba government has recognized the need for stronger protections against unfair pricing practices and has taken steps to ban surveillance pricing and strengthen consumer transparency and accountability;
Therefore, we, the undersigned citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to:
- Ban exploitative surveillance pricing practices by prohibiting corporations from using personal data, artificial intelligence, and algorithmic systems to secretly charge different prices to different consumers for the same goods and services;
- Strengthen privacy protections by ensuring that Canadians’ personal information cannot be collected, analyzed, or used to manipulate prices;
- Establish clear rules against deceptive and unfair pricing practices, including requirements for transparency when corporations use algorithms, artificial intelligence, or consumer data to determine prices;
- Create strong penalties and enforcement measures to hold corporations accountable when they engage in surveillance pricing practices that exploit consumers or undermine fair competition;
- Give consumers the right to know why they are being charged a particular price and what information or technology was used to determine that price; and
- Work with provinces and territories to establish strong national regulations that protect Canadians from digital price discrimination and corporate abuse of personal data.