WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) – The chair of the U.S. House Oversight Committee on Thursday asked the CEOs of five major travel companies including Uber, Lyft and Expedia to disclose if they were using surveillance pricing of consumers to hike costs.
Representative James Comer, the Republican chair of the committee, raised concern in letters to the companies that the rise of surveillance pricing algorithms and use of highly personalized consumer data may create opportunities “for companies to weaponize personal data and pad their profit margins at the expense of providing transparency to consumers.”
The companies, which also include Booking.com and Instacart, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
