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John Kruse hosts weekend shows on KPNWNorthwestern Outdoors is heard Saturday morning 6-7am, and 4-5pm Saturday AfternoonAmerican Outdoors Radio 3-4pm Saturday.

Selectivepricing. Surveillance pricing. Personalized pricing. Dynamic pricing. The termsare flying around, but they don’t all mean the same thing.
 
Aprice that changes with demand is one concern; a price that changes because astore knows who is shopping is another. Even the Federal Trade Commission isweighing when companies need to tell customers their personal data helped set aprice. 
 
Now,retail discount giant Walmart has patented new ways to use technology to helpset prices. One system could automatically change markdowns on its websitewhile another could predict demand and recommend prices. For a company that hasbuilt its reputation on low prices, the idea of using more data to help setthem is bound to get concerned shoppers’ attention. The filings’ arrival amid awider debate about shopping data raises a separate question: Could knowing moreabout a customer eventually change what the customer pays? 
 
Apatent describes an invention a company wants to protect. However, it doesn’tnecessarily tell shoppers whether the company ever put it to work.
 
WhenWalmart’s pricing patents drew attention on social media earlier this year,some shoppers connected them to fears about surveillance pricing: chargingpeople different prices for the same product based on information about them.The patents don’t show Walmart doing that, but the broader concern about howretailers might use shopping data remains.
 
Thisis a scary practice.
 
Haveyou ever searched a flight fare in the morning and it goes up that afternoon?
 
Do Flight Prices Go Up theMore You Search?
 
Shouldcompanies be able to change their price based on your buying habits?
 
JohnRizvi is known as The Patent Professor®. He's an Adjunct Professor of PatentLaw at Nova Southeastern Law School in Florida and the author of two books onpatents.

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