Those ads in the paper weren't directly targeted at you, an individual. For the paper ads to be an analog to what we have on the internet today the advertising

Those ads in the paper weren't directly targeted at you, an individual. For the paper ads to be an analog to what we have on the internet today the advertising company of the past would have had to hire a guy in a hat and trench coat to follow you around with a notebook keeping track of every place you walked into, every book you read, every item you purchased, and everyone you interacted with. Would it _technically_ have been legal for them to do so? Probably in most jurisdictions as long as you were in public. Was it practical? No. We are living now in the digital age where a few pieces of code can replace the guy in the hat with his notebook for fractions of a penny, except worse, because now all the corporate merchants are willingly selling my purchasing data to brokers.