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Couldn’t this technically qualify as discrimination? I vaguely remember reading about how one of the big dating apps increased prices with a user’s age, but had

Couldn’t this technically qualify as discrimination? I vaguely remember reading about how one of the big dating apps increased prices with a user’s age, but had to revert the policy because it amounted to age discrimination. I would hope income qualifies for the same protection, but maybe not.

pb7 7y ago
It does not. Edit: Answering the very last part of the comment; it does not have the same protections.
- jhoechtl 7y ago
  Why not? Care to elaborate?
  - pb7 7y ago
    Sorry, I figured there wasn't much to elaborate on. Age is a protected class (after a certain age I believe, 40+ maybe?) but income is not. Price discrimination based on income/socio-economic class is one of the most commonly exploited things in business.
6gvONxR4sf7o 7y ago
I think it's probably like any other decision you make on a person by person basis, like salaries. You can't use protected stuff as a factor, but you don't have to pay every employee doing that job the same amount.
esotericn 7y ago
Yes, it is discrimination. I believe that you're asking whether it's legal. Also yes.
suyash 7y ago
It is price discrimination but very hard to prove as one person doesn't know what another person is paying. The algorithm is proprietary.
cortesoft 7y ago
No, income is not a protected class. If you could show that the price discrimination unduly hurts a protected class, you might have a case, but that is unlikely.
OkGoDoIt 7y ago
Tinder almost certainly still discriminates pricing based on age. A friend of mine signed up for two new accounts a couple months back and the account where he listed his age as in his 20s would have been half the price as for an upgrade subscription for the one where he was listed as being in his 30s. Maybe they are using other factors, maybe he was in a different part of town when he signed up. Maybe it has to do with the school or the job listed in each account. You don’t know, and therefore you can’t prove anything. As long as the algorithms are a black box it’s hard to take a company to court over discrimination.
pmoriarty 7y ago
This is exactly what the rich need: more protection. They're just so unfairly treated in the rest of society. It would be so unfair if Uber also discriminated against them.

pb7 7y ago

It does not. Edit: Answering the very last part of the comment; it does not have the same protections.

jhoechtl 7y ago
Why not? Care to elaborate?
- pb7 7y ago
  Sorry, I figured there wasn't much to elaborate on. Age is a protected class (after a certain age I believe, 40+ maybe?) but income is not. Price discrimination based on income/socio-economic class is one of the most commonly exploited things in business.

6gvONxR4sf7o 7y ago

I think it's probably like any other decision you make on a person by person basis, like salaries. You can't use protected stuff as a factor, but you don't have to pay every employee doing that job the same amount.

esotericn 7y ago

Yes, it is discrimination. I believe that you're asking whether it's legal. Also yes.

suyash 7y ago

It is price discrimination but very hard to prove as one person doesn't know what another person is paying. The algorithm is proprietary.

cortesoft 7y ago

No, income is not a protected class. If you could show that the price discrimination unduly hurts a protected class, you might have a case, but that is unlikely.

OkGoDoIt 7y ago

Tinder almost certainly still discriminates pricing based on age. A friend of mine signed up for two new accounts a couple months back and the account where he listed his age as in his 20s would have been half the price as for an upgrade subscription for the one where he was listed as being in his 30s. Maybe they are using other factors, maybe he was in a different part of town when he signed up. Maybe it has to do with the school or the job listed in each account. You don’t know, and therefore you can’t prove anything. As long as the algorithms are a black box it’s hard to take a company to court over discrimination.

pmoriarty 7y ago

This is exactly what the rich need: more protection. They're just so unfairly treated in the rest of society. It would be so unfair if Uber also discriminated against them.