Freaky thing: Google knows what specific thing I was looking at in a physical store.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

When I was at the Home Depot today, I randomly stopped at a small 5 foot long display of garbage disposals for a few minutes. One of the garbage disposal’s product name was “Badger” which I thought was funny.

I have never searched for or shopped for a garbage disposal online in my life. I do not have a Home Depot app on my phone.

After I left the store, I used Google on my phone to look up an address and an ad for the Badger garbage disposal popped up.

WTF? I have never had this happen to me. I have had Google let me know what physical stores I had visited, but I have never had Google pinpoint exactly what aisle I was in or what product I was looking at. Is this a new thing?

2

This article might explain how. But I’m convinced that google is psychic.

3

It’s just the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. You had Badger ads before, but you ignored them. Now you notice them.

4

Tell Google you don’t need no stinkin’ Badgers.

5

I must be easy to read. Google does this to me, all the time.

6

Totally read that as BADGER-Meinhof phenomenon.

7

This does seem to be a good explanation for the OP, and pretty scary too.

8

It’s been almost 20 years since I started analyzing Bluetooth. It was scary then, it’s scary now.

9

My coworker showed me a new piece of video equipment he had just bought. I didn’t google it or look at anything like it on my computer, but now I’m getting ads for it. It’s a little creepy.

10

I saw that article yesterday and disabled Bluetooth on my phone immediately thereafter.

I’d recommend also checking and limiting which apps are authorized to access location data on your phone.

11

Just used up one of my NY Times freebies to read it. Not really seeing the threat.

I could see dystopian totalitarianism making nefarious use of the tech. But we’re a bit of a ways off from that, and meanwhile, a grocery app knowing that I spend more time in the cheese section than the baby aisle - and sending coupons for mozzarella but not diapers - is low on my list of worries.

12

Reminds me of this trick ESP Experiment

13

That was slick!

When they say they’re gonna remove the card you chose, they remove all the cards.

14

Yeah. I saw this trick a couple of decades ago (not on the web - in a PowerPoint of all things) and it took me a while to figure it out.

15

If you run an orange or lemon through it every once in a while, it’s not so bad.