> essentially, Google assigns an anonymized identifier to a user and sends that to prospective ad buyers. If it's anonymized then how could they send targeted

> essentially, Google assigns an anonymized identifier to a user and sends that to prospective ad buyers. If it's anonymized then how could they send targeted ads to you? I think you're using a slightly different version of the word anonymous. How I use the word anonymous it means, roughly speaking, that it can't be traced back to you. Or in this context, google wouldn't be selling anonymized data to third parties who in turn could contact you. If they were selling data like X persons like product Y more then Z, there would be less of an uproar about this.