Major e-commerce platforms are increasingly deploying AI-powered shopping assistants, but a growing number of online merchants are pushing back hard. The core issue? Their website data is being harvested without consent or compensation.

When a tech giant's AI scrapes product information, pricing, and customer data from independent retailers, it raises uncomfortable questions: Who owns this data? Should merchants have a say in how their business information is used? These retailers argue they didn't sign up for their competitive advantage to be fed into someone else's recommendation algorithms.

This tension highlights a larger problem in today's internet landscape. Centralized platforms unilaterally decide how user and merchant data flows through their systems. There's no transparency, no negotiation, no shared benefit. For many in the Web3 space, this exact scenario demonstrates why decentralized alternatives matter—where data ownership remains with creators and businesses, and usage rights are clearly defined through smart contracts.

The backlash is a reminder that the digital economy's foundation—data—has become increasingly contentious. As AI capabilities expand, so does the urgency around establishing clearer rules about data rights and fair compensation.