> Conspiracy theory: what if they intentionally throw random garbage in there so you don't get paranoid? That's not a paranoid conspiracy theory (and certainly

> Conspiracy theory: what if they intentionally throw random garbage in there so you don't get paranoid? That's not a paranoid conspiracy theory (and certainly not something that should be down-voted to oblivion). It's well documented that Target did that exact same thing to throw off its customers, so they wouldn't be weirded-out by its pregnancy-prediction algorithm. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-targ...: > “Then we started mixing in all these ads for things we knew pregnant women would never buy, so the baby ads looked random. We’d put an ad for a lawn mower next to diapers. We’d put a coupon for wineglasses next to infant clothes. That way, it looked like all the products were chosen by chance. > “And we found out that as long as a pregnant woman thinks she hasn’t been spied on, she’ll use the coupons. She just assumes that everyone else on her block got the same mailer for diapers and cribs. As long as we don’t spook her, it works.”