Colorado governor vetoes block on surveillance pricing as other states push for bans

Colorado’s governor vetoed a bill on Tuesday that would have banned companies from using surveillance pricing to set workers’ wages and prices for consumer goods. The measure would have been the strongest in the nation against algorithmic pricing. While Maryland became the first state to approve a law banning surveillance pricing in grocery stores in April, Colorado’s proposed measure was more expansive. Governor Jared Polis wrote in a public letter explaining his veto that he found the legislation to be overly broad, and said it would “inadvertently capture innocuous uses of technology that in no way harms – and indeed benefits – consumers and workers”, echoing business owners’ major concern with the bill, which was supported by progressive groups. He said the bill would “punish differentially lower prices, not just higher prices”. Consumer advocates are unhappy with the veto. “Governor Polis had an opportunity to stand with working Coloradans, but instead chose to side with the dominant corporations using invasive surveillance data to pick their pockets,” said Pat Garofalo, director of state and local policy at the American Economic Liberties Project. Colorado’s bill proposed banning companies from using algorithms, powered by artificial intelligence or other data-processing techniques, to set custom prices or wages based on the collection of an individual’s information. …