Rewards programs are turning into data-harvesting machines. Why companies now profit more from your habits than you do

Loyalty programs were once designed to thank customers for sticking around. This could include perks like free coffee, airline miles, or grocery discounts in exchange for repeat business. But that long-standing model of mutual benefit is rapidly disappearing. According to The Washington Post (1), these programs increasingly rely on a disturbing pattern called “surveillance pricing” where they collect data to create “individualized prices” — a tactic that may punish rather than reward consumer loyalty. M ...