They watched (didn’t read) the handmaids tales, and thought what a great idea

It was ages ago, Wikipedia links to a paper for 2009 and another review paper in 2016.

I liked it for the world building potential, it does feel like it’s the 2nd or 3rd movie in a trilogy I terms of story.

At this point I think flock has become a common name for these types of devices

Basically yes

How the fuck would surveillance based pricing work in real life. Prices would have to change every time a different person looked at it. Can you imagine the chaos at the self scan checkouts when the pricing flashes up wrong on every item you bought. Most people would just leave