4 ms·

I've heard it from more folks than I'd like to. And counting them all as crazy or paranoid is less believable than the alternative.

ricardobayes 5y ago
I've only experienced it first-hand on youtube. After trying to learn spanish and talking spanish on the phone (but searched nothing on youtube in Spanish) Youtube offers recommendations in Spanish. Also after I sneezed a couple of times it recommends something related to hay fever. Lots more. I find these way more than circumstancial.
andybak 5y ago
> And counting them all as crazy or paranoid Nobody is saying that. It's simply a quirk of human psychology. We are pattern matching machines with a poor intuitive grasp of probability.
pumnikol 5y ago
A while ago, out of the blue, I've been diagnosed with a very rare medical condition. Online ads and recommended videos then started showing relevant and very specific drugs, treatments, therapies, self-help groups etc. for me. I had not performed any online or offline research about the topic, had not talked to anyone about it at all, except the MD, and had bought all drugs with cash. What are the odds? Then at work, in a web meeting, I made a completely spontaneous pun about having a divorce. Minutes later, my social media were completely plastered with ads for divorce lawyers, which they had never been before. I've never been married, don't want to be, and I don't even know anyone who has gotten a divorce in the last five years. And more, and more. If social media companies are selling health and other personal data to advertisers, what's stopping them from selling it to insurances and recruiters? Maybe I am all wrong about this, and maybe many others are also. Or maybe we'll start seeing a big wave of whisteblowing and revelation books once the current crop of software engineers, managers and directors retire and/ or are sufficiently strapped for cash.

ricardobayes 5y ago

I've only experienced it first-hand on youtube. After trying to learn spanish and talking spanish on the phone (but searched nothing on youtube in Spanish) Youtube offers recommendations in Spanish. Also after I sneezed a couple of times it recommends something related to hay fever. Lots more. I find these way more than circumstancial.

andybak 5y ago

> And counting them all as crazy or paranoid Nobody is saying that. It's simply a quirk of human psychology. We are pattern matching machines with a poor intuitive grasp of probability.

pumnikol 5y ago

A while ago, out of the blue, I've been diagnosed with a very rare medical condition. Online ads and recommended videos then started showing relevant and very specific drugs, treatments, therapies, self-help groups etc. for me. I had not performed any online or offline research about the topic, had not talked to anyone about it at all, except the MD, and had bought all drugs with cash. What are the odds? Then at work, in a web meeting, I made a completely spontaneous pun about having a divorce. Minutes later, my social media were completely plastered with ads for divorce lawyers, which they had never been before. I've never been married, don't want to be, and I don't even know anyone who has gotten a divorce in the last five years. And more, and more. If social media companies are selling health and other personal data to advertisers, what's stopping them from selling it to insurances and recruiters? Maybe I am all wrong about this, and maybe many others are also. Or maybe we'll start seeing a big wave of whisteblowing and revelation books once the current crop of software engineers, managers and directors retire and/ or are sufficiently strapped for cash.