Scathing class-action lawsuit accuses Washington Post of surveillance pricing: Covert data-harvesting

Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post is facing a scathing new class-action lawsuit accusing it of using surveillance pricing to gouge loyal readers – in a case that attorneys believe could rack up millions in damages.Since the mid-2010s, WaPo has “covertly harvested” subscriber data, using “deeply personal information” to determine how much they could squeeze out of each loyal reader, according to the suit, which was filed Thursday in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.Readers largely expected their personal data would be used for “mutually beneficial purposes” like “relevant advertisements” – and did not consent to their personal information being used to hike prices on their subscriptions, the suit alleged.“The Washington Post has gone from an iconic institution of journalism to just another profit-obsessed technology company remade in the image of its tech bro billionaire owner and his move-fast-and-break-things mindset of value extraction,” Ryan Clarkson, founder and managing partner of Clarkson Law Firm, said in a statement.The Washington Post did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.The plaintiff in the case, Washington, DC, resident Chelsea Blink, is just “one of millions of such subscribers affected by The Post’s covert data-harvesting practices,” according to the lawsuit.Tim Giordano, a partner at The Clarkson Firm, told Mediaite he believes the case – which is seeking class-action status for current and former subscribers – could generate “millions, if not billions, in damages, given that the scheme operated nationwide.”After billionaire Bezos bought WaPo in 2013 for $250 million, the paper started heavily investing in technology and digital subscriptions, the suit noted.“The more loyal a reader became, the more data The Post could gather to estimate how much more that person might tolerate paying at renewal,” the complaint said.“Rather than rewarding loyalty, The Post’s system conv...