Absolutely! Think of this way - these companies are crunching ridiculous amounts of data to come up with their targeting algorithms. Do you really think they haven’t crunched the numbers to see if their advertising is working? They know exactly how much sales bump up with each little tweak.
Everyone thinks they are not influenced by targeted ads, but the reality is that everyone is. If you think that you are not, that just means that you aren’t aware of it (and are therefore probably even more likely to be influenced). You can minimize it by being aware of all the ways it happens, but just accept that it’s still going to happen.
The guy might have had the contact info of one of your husbands coworkers (which would seem highly possible if they were all working on the same project) and that coworker also had your husbands contact info. That’s a connection even if your husband wasn’t Facebook friends with any of his coworkers.
Could be, especially of one of them was DUMB ENOUGH to share their contacts list with Facebook. I remember when I first joined FB, its setting by default was “lemme spam everyone you know, pretty pleeeeeze” and I had to override that.
…let alone the incredibly internet traffic that this permanent listening-recording-sending audio-files off to the mothership would cause …
I wonder why none of the cybersecurity/internet security guys have picked up on that with billions of cel’s out there.
/s
probably observation bias … had this ad been launched 3 weeks before, no way you’d interpreted “sense” into it - and sure as heck could not remember it.
again, most likely observation bias.
My father once bought a Alfa Romeo (not too common a brand) … and once we had it, we were surprised how many AR’s there were circulating … we saw a few every day …
BECAUSE they stood out to us … and we converted them from (sensory information) NOISE to (cognitive) SIGNAL in our perception process… The Datsuns that were also circulating stayed in the noise forever …
I really don’t recall seeing ANY ads on my computer - but I run a pretty tight ship cookie/ad-blocker wise …
So they might target me, but I never manage to see any ads at all.
As a matter of fact, I set up a different browser the other day to test something, and was surprised/shocked how different many websites look WITH the ads still in.
I bought a new suitcase last December. While researching, I looked at several brands.
I STILL see ads for those brands.
On the other hand, I bought some jeans at Macy’s, that I really liked. So when I got a little skinnier, I bought another pair a size down. And I bought 4 more pairs of the same model of jeans.
My phone has been showing me ads for clothing including those jeans. And at least once, it made me think “Oh yeah, I should order some more spares”. Of course, I’m still getting those ads, which include winter pajamas and other things I don’t need, and with 6 pairs of jeans in a style I like, I may literally never need to buy another pair.
I was on a call with an insurance adjuster last year–answering some medical questions. At one point, the question was did I have a history of liver disease. I said “no, but I’m working on it.” HAHA–just a little joke about the fact that I do tend to augment my Diet Coke with spirits more often than not. We had a bit of a laugh and about 30 seconds of conversation.
Next day, my e-mail has a number of spam messages about liver function and check your liver and how to improve your liver.
I’d never gotten liver-specific spams before.
The only thing I can figure was that I was in front of my work computer, that has Teams running. I’m not so paranoid to think my phone was tapped, but I can certainly buy that Teams was listening in.
No, I’m well aware of the phenomenon of observation bias / confirmation bias. My thing was 99% most likely not that.
Again. I’m surprised at the continuing skepticism in this thread. Maybe I’m to blame with my kind of silly OP example-- I guess I was going for an extreme, exaggerated scenario to get a discussion going…“Are they tracking my sandwich-making preferences now? Crazy!”. I should have started out with a more realistic example. My OP example was certainly coincidence / confirmation bias.
But it’s not tinfoil-hat talk to accept the fact that our habits, purchases and preferences are being tracked with an ever increasing accuracy and thoroughness to the point that it does seem like they’re listening to what we say, or even reading our very thoughts. Note, I’m saying seems like.
Eh, probably just observation bias. /s
Unfortunately, brace yourself for another flurry of liver-related spams now that you mentioned that anecdote here. I get ad spam related to thread topics I participate in, or just read about here in the SDMB, all the freakin’ time.
Your insurance guy was probably typing your answers into his computer as you spoke, to calculate your insurance payments.
Now, that info ought to be private. But Big Pharma and big insurance companies create Big Data.
That’s what I like about Amazon asking me questions. I buy 12 bars of Irish Spring. Amazon then asks if I want to buy Irish Spring and it turns out , yeah, I’m getting low. Thanks, Amazon!
I actually worked for a company that created and sent promotional emails for other companies. For a short time.
I only got a small peek into the workings. The one thing that the software did that you might not realize, is that if you get a coupon via email, that coupon is associated with that email, so if you use it, they know the person with that email used that coupon, and they will send more coupons geared at you.
The most insidious use of targeted advertising that I heard about was not who they targeted, but who they excluded. ISTR some company buying ads to advertise job openings based on age and some other protected class. Googling shows quite a number of ads like this based on sex, race, and antisemitic remarks.