Businesses charge customers more for products based on insights gleaned from their consumer data and behaviors — including geolocation, demographics, shopping habits or even how an individual moves their mouse on a webpage — the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said in a preliminary report released Friday.

The report is based on materials provided by six companies — Mastercard, Accenture, PROS, Bloomreach, Revionics and McKinsey & Co. — whom the FTC ordered to provide information about their so-called surveillance pricing products in July.

The six queried firms sell tools that businesses use to constantly tweak pricing, allowing retailers to algorithmically adjust and target what they charge consumers based on a variety of individual characteristics.

The report, ordered by the agency’s outgoing Democratic majority, is at the “staff perspective” stage and is not yet final. Incoming FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson and fellow Republican Melissa Holyoak objected to its publication, saying it should not have been released before the agency’s investigation had concluded.

The report only offers hypothetical examples due to the FTC’s requirement that it not reveal confidential trade secrets, according to a press release from the agency.

It also does not make clear how extensively each of the six companies profile consumers. 

Some of the six indicated that they can “determine individualized and different pricing and discounts based on granular consumer data, like a cosmetics company targeting promotions to specific skin types and skin tones,” the release said.

A hypothetical case that the agency offered — based on the documents the six companies provided — involves a consumer profiled as a new parent being shown higher prices for baby products.

The six studied companies work with as many as 250 customers, ranging from grocery stores to clothing franchises, the FTC said.

“The FTC should continue to investigate surveillance pricing practices because Americans deserve to know how their private data is being used to set the prices they pay and whether firms are charging different people different prices for the same good or service,” outgoing Chair Lina Khan said in a statement.

The agency appealed to consumers and businesses to post public comments detailing how they have been impacted by surveillance pricing.

Only two of the six companies responded to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for Mastercard, which owns Recorded Future News, said the company is reviewing the just-released report.

“We do not provide surveillance pricing services,” the spokesperson said. “Our services and platforms help our customers to better understand trends and insights related to their businesses.”

A spokesperson for Revionics said the company does not develop software that “recommends pricing targeted to specific individuals. Revionics does not, in any manner, use individual consumer data.”

“Revionics’ AI price optimization software considers numerous, market-level factors when recommending optimal prices to retailers,” the spokesperson said. “Through the use of AI, Revionics helps retailers identify a price that is beneficial for both consumers and the retailer.”

Some of the six companies studied “objected to the characterization that the tools they offered were designed or used to set individualized prices for consumers or enable surveillance pricing,” the FTC noted.