The Consumer’s Guide to Beating the Bots

Event ID: PP1148552

Wed, Mar 18, 2026 | 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Venue: Salon D (JW Marriott)

View on Official SXSW

Summary

Corporations are weaponizing your personal data to inflate prices, suppress wages, and undermine transparency and basic fairness. This panel will expose how a convergence of corporate power and new technology has created a dizzying array of deceptive pricing practices. From surveillance pricing on airfares to algorithmic price fixing by landlords, companies are leveraging troves of consumer data to rip off customers. Our panelists will share how they have successfully defeated some of these nefarious practices and what policymakers, regulators, and consumers can do to fight back.

Contributors

Raw Event JSON

Large nested arrays are compacted for page readability. Full payload remains in dataset files.

Open JSON payload
{
  "id": "PP1148552",
  "track": "Tech & AI",
  "focus_area": null,
  "category": "Panel",
  "event_id": "PP1148552",
  "event_type": "panel",
  "format": "Panel",
  "genre": null,
  "subgenre": null,
  "name": "The Consumer’s Guide to Beating the Bots",
  "presented_by": null,
  "publish_at": "2025-09-30T16:00:00.000-05:00",
  "reservable": true,
  "reservable_id": "PP1148552",
  "reserved": false,
  "date": "2026-03-18",
  "end_time": "2026-03-18T12:30:00.000-05:00",
  "start_time": "2026-03-18T11:30:00.000-05:00",
  "message": null,
  "image": null,
  "credentials": [
    {
      "name": "Platinum Badge",
      "type": "platinum"
    },
    {
      "name": "Innovation Badge",
      "type": "innovation"
    }
  ],
  "contributors": [
    {
      "id": 77761,
      "company": "UC Berkeley Law School",
      "credential_types": [
        "innovation"
      ],
      "entity_id": 2238668,
      "name": "Doha Mekki",
      "speaker_types": [],
      "title": "Senior Fellow",
      "image": {
        "alt_text": "Doha Mekki",
        "credit": "Nina Ramadan",
        "url": "https://images.sxsw.com/xOxfY4DFqqiKWAAkgQdavISl0nc=/1022x0:4446x3424/600x600/images.sxsw.com/48/572bef0c-ce67-40e3-976b-52e9e5de3f4b/pcid-1619053"
      },
      "speaker_type": "Speaker",
      "details": "Doha Mekki held the top roles in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, serving until 2025 as the acting assistant attorney general — the agency’s top antitrust official. She served previously as principal deputy assistant attorney general, the division’s second-in-command, where she supervised all aspects of the Division’s work, including civil and criminal enforcement, litigation and trial, appeals, domestic and international policy, competition advocacy, and expert analysis programs. During her tenure, the division filed more monopolization cases than it had in nearly four decades. Mekki oversaw the investigation and litigation of landmark cases to stop criminal cartels, illegal mergers, and anticompetitive corporate practices in sectors across the U.S. economy. ",
      "links": {},
      "type": "person"
    },
    {
      "id": 77759,
      "company": "Business Insider",
      "credential_types": [
        "innovation"
      ],
      "entity_id": 2238666,
      "name": "Emily Stewart",
      "speaker_types": [],
      "title": "Senior Correspondent",
      "image": {
        "alt_text": "Emily Stewart",
        "credit": "",
        "url": "https://images.sxsw.com/asY_6WqVYP9DH6kAIxok5wkgg7g=/291x0:1091x800/600x600/images.sxsw.com/48/775dccc7-bfe3-450e-ac81-10348c61c74f/pcid-1619046"
      },
      "speaker_type": "Speaker",
      "details": "Emily Stewart is a senior correspondent on Business Insider’s Discourse team. She focuses on consumerism, culture, and the economy, among other topics. Some of her biggest stories have explored middle-class shoplifting, and convenience stores’ struggles. She also writes regularly about work, millennials, and economic trends. Emily appears regularly on nationally syndicated radio shows and podcasts, including Marketplace, The Weekend Dive, and Today, Explained. She has guest hosted C-SPAN’s “After Words” and moderated multiple panels on economic policy and workplace dynamics. Before joining Business Insider, Emily was at Vox, where she covered business and the economy and wrote a newsletter, “The Big Squeeze,” about how people experience the forces of the economy and capitalism day to day.",
      "links": {},
      "type": "person"
    },
    {
      "id": 77758,
      "company": "American Economic Liberties Project",
      "credential_types": [
        "innovation"
      ],
      "entity_id": 2238665,
      "name": "Alvaro Bedoya",
      "speaker_types": [],
      "title": "Senior Advisor",
      "image": {
        "alt_text": "Alvaro Bedoya",
        "credit": "Nina Ramadan",
        "url": "https://images.sxsw.com/qmnrTmzklkGLBAvnucSRJ2eXrOI=/1149x64:3887x2802/600x600/images.sxsw.com/48/77ce10ea-0bf5-45b7-95d6-a05e53d3c22b/pcid-1619038"
      },
      "speaker_type": "Speaker",
      "details": "Alvaro Bedoya is a Senior Advisor at the American Economic Liberties Project. He was appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as a Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission in May 2022 and served in that role until his resignation in June 2025. At the FTC, Commissioner Bedoya focused on how antitrust law could do more to protect workers and labor unions and warned against rapidly advancing workplace surveillance technology. He took a special interest in the challenges facing small-town grocers and pharmacists and helped coordinate the Commission’s revival of the Robinson-Patman Act, a long-dormant antitrust law that was passed to give small sellers a level playing field against retail giants. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School.",
      "links": {},
      "type": "person"
    },
    {
      "id": 77756,
      "company": "The Groundwork Collaborative",
      "credential_types": [
        "innovation"
      ],
      "entity_id": 2238663,
      "name": "Lindsay Owens",
      "speaker_types": [],
      "title": "Executive Director",
      "image": {
        "alt_text": "Lindsay Owens",
        "credit": "",
        "url": "https://images.sxsw.com/ePIpPcwLO-HVt3WaqszOnhtimmw=/2032x26:7527x5521/600x600/images.sxsw.com/48/bfc083b6-4d36-4b0a-9d7e-965b9157ccc6/pcid-1619028"
      },
      "speaker_type": "Speaker",
      "details": "Lindsay Owens, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the economic think tank Groundwork Collaborative and author of the forthcoming book, GOUGED: The End of a Fair Price in America. Widely known for her ability to communicate pressing economic concepts and arguments, Lindsay has been credited with changing the way we understand inflation by leading the charge to expose – and articulate – the role of firm pricing power and corporate profiteering in price increases. Previously, Lindsay served as a senior economic policy adviser to Sen. Warren, and deputy chief of staff and legislative director to Reps. Ellison and Progressive Caucus Chair Jayapal. She holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.",
      "links": {},
      "type": "person"
    }
  ],
  "venue": {
    "accessible": false,
    "age_policy": null,
    "floor": "3",
    "id": "V0454",
    "indoor_outdoor": "INDOOR",
    "name": "Salon D",
    "parent_id": "V0403",
    "parent_venue_name": "JW Marriott",
    "venue_entry_info": null,
    "formats": null,
    "location": {
      "address": "110 E 2nd St.",
      "lat_lon": [
        30.2645713,
        -97.743198
      ],
      "city": "Austin",
      "postal_code": "78701",
      "state": "TX",
      "name": "JW Marriott"
    },
    "root": {
      "accessible": null,
      "age_policy": null,
      "floor": null,
      "id": "V0403",
      "indoor_outdoor": null,
      "name": "JW Marriott",
      "parent_id": null,
      "parent_venue_name": null,
      "venue_entry_info": null,
      "formats": null
    },
    "events": "[omitted 5 venue events]"
  },
  "description": "Corporations are weaponizing your personal data to inflate prices, suppress wages, and undermine transparency and basic fairness. This panel will expose how a convergence of corporate power and new technology has created a dizzying array of deceptive pricing practices. From surveillance pricing on airfares to algorithmic price fixing by landlords, companies are leveraging troves of consumer data to rip off customers. Our panelists will share how they have successfully defeated some of these nefarious practices and what policymakers, regulators, and consumers can do to fight back.",
  "experience_level": "Beginner",
  "accessibility": [
    "Closed captioned"
  ],
  "accessible_venue": false,
  "add_bcl_url": false,
  "add_slido": false,
  "age_policy": null,
  "american_sign_language": false,
  "apple_url": null,
  "audio_description": false,
  "caption_url": null,
  "closed_captioned": true,
  "cpe_credit": false,
  "has_subtitles": false,
  "hash_tags": [],
  "high_sensory_experience": false,
  "live": false,
  "long_description": "Corporations are weaponizing your personal data to inflate prices, suppress wages, and undermine transparency and basic fairness. This panel will expose how a convergence of corporate power and new technology has created a dizzying array of deceptive pricing practices. From surveillance pricing on airfares to algorithmic price fixing by landlords, companies are leveraging troves of consumer data to rip off customers. Our panelists will share how they have successfully defeated some of these nefarious practices and what policymakers, regulators, and consumers can do to fight back.",
  "meeting_url": null,
  "meeting_url_live": false,
  "mentorly_url": null,
  "mobile_audio_url": null,
  "open_captioned": false,
  "playlist_tag": null,
  "rebroadcast": false,
  "recommended_ids": [],
  "search_conversions": null,
  "short_program": false,
  "slido_url": null,
  "sort": "CONSUMER?S GUIDE TO BEATING THE BOTS",
  "source": "Official",
  "squad_up_url": null,
  "stream_embed": null,
  "stream_id": null,
  "stream_url": null,
  "strobe_warning": false,
  "subdiscipline": null,
  "summit": null,
  "summit_display_name": null,
  "tags": [
    {
      "id": 2546,
      "name": "Misinformation / Disinformation",
      "created_at": "2025-01-21T22:44:04.576-06:00",
      "updated_at": "2025-01-21T22:44:04.576-06:00",
      "sort": "MISINFORMATION / DISINFORMATION",
      "alpha": "M"
    },
    {
      "id": 2387,
      "name": "Privacy / Security",
      "created_at": "2023-02-10T13:04:29.497-06:00",
      "updated_at": "2023-02-10T13:04:29.497-06:00",
      "sort": "PRIVACY / SECURITY",
      "alpha": "P"
    },
    {
      "id": 943,
      "name": "Policy",
      "created_at": "2016-11-03T15:56:26.812-05:00",
      "updated_at": "2024-02-05T17:28:34.060-06:00",
      "sort": "POLICY",
      "alpha": "P"
    }
  ],
  "talent_attending": null,
  "title_only": false,
  "track_display_name": "Tech & AI track sponsored by IBM",
  "trailer_id": null,
  "trailer_url": null,
  "video_on_demand": null,
  "vimeo_id": null,
  "vod": false,
  "xr_project_type": null,
  "youtube_id": null,
  "related_sales_client": null
}