Streeter: Maryland is trying to save us from our grocery store apps

I have always prided myself on my merciless blocking of random dudes who play the “Hey girl, can I get those digits?” game. I’m not so discreet with grocery stores offering me $1.49 off my favorite vegan cheese in exchange for that same number. Then I’m like “Baby, you want my email and details on which cereal my kid likes, too? Here you go!”

Instead of a guy who at least might buy you a drink, I and others freely give our personal information to stores that have been using it to charge us more money for certain items they know we buy. Fortunately, the Maryland legislature is saving me from myself.

The newly signed Protection from Predatory Pricing Act (HB 895) stops grocery stores over 15,000 square feet from creating dynamic pricing, using information we fork over when we sign up for loyalty programs or store apps, as well as details gleaned from our patterns that could reveal race, gender and income data.

“It’s gone from creepy to super creepy. Next level. Really scary,” Del. Natalie Ziegler, a Democrat representing parts of Howard and Montgomery counties, said of the practice.

The bill, the first of its kind in the country, struck me as significant not just because it protects people like me who’ve surrendered privacy for discounted pepper Jack. It, along with the state’s Voting Rights Act of 2026, comes as the federal government is moving quickly to strip rights from us. It’s heartening to know that Maryland is actually taking a stand to protect its residents, even when we sometimes don’t realize we need the protection.

We are in the middle of a widespread affordability crisis, which is not, contrary to the president’s belief, a hoax. Gas is up at the pump, utility bills are out of control and food costs more.

“We need to do better. People are having a hard time, and in many ways these are our values, things like the Voting Rights Act,” Ziegler said. “It doesn’t cost any money to do it. It’s the right thing to do.”

The exceptions to the grocery pricing law, which is expected to kick in Oct. 1, are discounts offered to everyone or to those who take part in loyalty programs. Critics think there are too many loopholes with the latter and that enforcement doesn’t go far enough, but it’s a start. Representatives for Giant, Harris Teeter and Safeway did not respond to requests for comment.

Del. Gabriel M. Moreno, a Howard County Democrat, said the new law will be particularly helpful for online and app shoppers who don’t realize they’re being charged more than the price on the shelf.

But those aisles aren’t the only place we’re being preyed on. Moreno said airlines raise prices based on how many times you search for the same flight, indicating that you really want it and may be willing to pay more. There’s also evidence of hiking costs for panicked people trying to flee natural disasters, which happened to me in 2017 while attempting to get from Florida to Baltimore during a hurricane.

Moreno said the bill’s genesis was an investigation into how Instacart charged hundreds of users different prices for the same item. Now, stores and apps “can’t use your personal data, can’t use your location or shopping history, and when it comes to protected classes like ethnicity and race, it can’t use that either,” he said.

Ziegler offered a scenario in which, say, a Jewish customer whose data shows they buy a lot of kosher products could see their prices on matzo ball soup and Manischewitz wine rise during the High Holidays. “Now it’s the day before Passover, and look! brisket’s on sale,” she said — but maybe not the same price as everyone else.

The predatory behavior continues with location, and can target low-income residents who use delivery apps in food deserts because they can’t find what they want where they live, Moreno said. Exploitive and gross.

The frustration is that we — and by that I mean “me” — have made it easier for private companies to collect our data. They shouldn’t be selling it, of course, but we give it up every time we enter our phone numbers into a keypad, accept cookies on a website or connect to a store’s WiFi.

“I’m thinking back to the first time I signed up for a supermarket loyalty card,” Ziegler said. “It’s depressing that this is how much I care about myself. I’ve literally given myself away for a buck fifty.”

There is something creepy about how my Safeway app knows when I’ve entered a store, and which one. The last time I went into a Royal Farms, the Waze traffic app asked if I wanted to share gas prices with other users. Get out of my business, robot!

The truth is that I let the robot track me. There was a time when I prided myself on not signing anything I hadn’t read thoroughly yet, but it just doesn’t seem as practical when you’re swiping through at the counter with people in line behind you.

“There’s always gonna be a risk of some kind of data leak, whether you consent or not,” Moreno said. “As time goes on, you realize these things that look like they are conveniences end up not being free. It’s saving you money, but you wind up paying.”

I asked Moreno if there’s any way to claw back our information or, at least, slow the flow of what we give away until the act goes into effect. I didn’t love the answer.

“I sometimes feel a little more pessimistic,” he said. “We are trying to do the best we can for privacy rights, and protecting people’s data, but our data is already out there, already been sold. We just do the best we can.”