Lawmakers shopping ideas to target supermarket surveillance

[Music] Massachusetts grocery stores could be banned from adjusting prices or sending targeted advertisements as corporate surveillance becomes common place in grocery stores. >> 22 News state house reporter Olivia Ray explains how one Western Massachusetts lawmaker is announcing a bill that looks to proactively block supermarkets from doing this. As of now, Bay State Supermarkets can collect your biometric data and use it to adjust pricing and send targeted ads. Northampton Representative Lindseay Sabadosa filed a bill to block this practice. Chain grocery stores across the country like Walmart and Kroger partner with technology companies to deploy surveillance pricing and advertising techniques to maximize profits. These techniques include collecting fingerprint, voice print, I retina, and gate information to identify individual customers shopping patterns. These grocery stores say they will use the data to help customers, but Massachusetts lawmakers don't buy it. >> It's really, really important that we're not using gimmicks or other techniques to try to encourage additional purchasing. We're just offering prices to people. The western Massachusetts representative says food prices could skyrocket in a time where one in three Bay state families already experience food insecurity. >> The grocery store in using these techni techniques is not looking at you know who can afford to pay more. They're looking at how much more can we sell and that's a way that this will I very much believe increase food insecurity in Massachusetts. Critics of this bill say biometric data collected by big grocery stores is used primarily to offer targeted discounts, similar to how stores use loyalty card information to offer coupons shoppers will actually use. If the Bay State bills were to pass, customers whose biometric data was used by grocery stores could seek damages in court. Working for you from the state house in Boston, I'm Olivia Ray, 22 News.