How else do the ads know very specific details that you haven’t told anyone? In 2025, sometimes, you are certain that you haven’t said anything at all, ever, in front of your phone or otherwise, to anyone else in the world, and you still get these highly targeted ads, for example, on YouTube.
Google owns YouTube, and Google is in the business of knowing as much as it can about every person in order to sell those targeted ads. Google is the biggest super-creep that ever creeped on planet Earth. Here are a few ways they appear to read minds:
* Inferred Information: Even without direct actions, data brokers and advertising platforms build surprisingly detailed profiles[3][7]. They might infer needs based on your demographics, location, life stage, and broader purchase patterns of people similar to you[3]. For example, if you recently moved, you might see ads for home security systems. If you’re in a certain age bracket, you might see ads related to health concerns common in that age group.
* Partner Data: Companies often share data with each other[7]. A purchase you made at a physical store might be linked to your online profile, or a survey you took could be used to target ads even if you didn’t explicitly agree to it.
* “Lookalike” Audiences: Advertisers can create “lookalike” audiences based on the characteristics of their existing customers. If you share traits with people who have purchased a specific product, you might be targeted even if you haven’t shown direct interest.
* Subconscious or Forgotten Actions: It’s possible you encountered something related to the product in the past and don’t remember it. A fleeting glance at a website, a conversation you overheard, or even a product placement in a movie could have been enough to trigger the algorithm.
* Coincidence: While less likely, it’s always possible that it’s just a strange coincidence. Sometimes algorithms get it wrong, and you might be targeted for something completely unrelated to your actual needs.
* Data Breach: If a company that you entrusted sensitive information to experienced a data breach, this information could be circulating and used to target you with very specific advertising.
It’s important to remember that the advertising industry is constantly evolving, and its methods are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
While complete privacy is difficult to achieve, you can take steps to limit data collection and targeted advertising:
* Review Privacy Settings: Regularly review and adjust the privacy settings on your social media accounts, search engines, and other online services.
* Use a Privacy-Focused Browser and Search Engine: Consider using browsers like Brave or Firefox with privacy extensions and search engines like DuckDuckGo that don’t track your searches.
* Use a VPN: A VPN can mask your IP address and make it more difficult for websites to track your location.
* Opt-Out of Targeted Advertising: Many advertising platforms allow you to opt-out of targeted advertising.
* Clear Your Browsing History and Cookies: Regularly clear your browsing history and cookies to remove tracking data from your computer.
* Be Mindful of the Information You Share: Be cautious about the information you share online and offline, as it can be used to target you with ads[1].
It’s understandable to feel uneasy about targeted advertising, especially when it seems to know more than it should. By taking steps to protect your privacy, you can regain some control over the information that is collected about you.
Will you be successful? No. I don’t think so. I think the technology will get ever more spooky no matter how much you strive for privacy, which, by the way, is a basic human right. The only hope for this insanity to stop is a complete revision of our military-industrial government, our corpocracy. A corpocracy is a country ruled by corporations with a hypocritical veneer of being a democratic republic.
What can you really do? Honestly, nothing. Enjoy being angry at constant tech invasions of your privacy. Boycott this illegal wiretapping by not clicking on the highly targeted ads ever. It won’t matter because your friends, family, business acquaintances, and everyone else you ever interact with will click on their targeted ads, and they are all tied to you in the big data picture[7].
Read More
[1] https://digitalcontentnext.org/blog/2018/08/21/google-data-collection-research/
[2] https://quickcreator.io/seo/the-impact-of-google-on-privacy-and-data-security/
[3] https://www.knowledge-sourcing.com/resources/thought-articles/the-role-of-data-brokers-in-marketing-and-advertising/
[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/PetPeeves/comments/1hyxaue/when_you_point_out_someones_grammarspelling_error/
[5] https://www.dre.vanderbilt.edu/~schmidt/PDF/google-data-collection.pdf
[6] https://safety.google/privacy/data/
[7] https://adtechbook.clearcode.cc/dmp-and-data-usage/
[8] https://hubpages.com/community/forum/132583/automated-grammar-and-spelling-checker
[9] https://boldist.co/analytics/google-data-collection/
[10] https://www.grammarcheck.net
[11] https://www.avast.com/c-how-google-uses-your-data
[12] https://campaignsoftheworld.com/news/the-dark-side-of-google/