A friend coming home from work saw the neighbor on a new riding lawn mower. They chatted for awhile and the friend commenting that he was thinking of getting one.
They finished chatting and he went inside. Pulled his phone out of his pocket to check his emails. It already had an ad for riding lawn mowers (and he continued to get them). The idea of a new mower had just occurred to him while talking with the neighbor. He figures the phone is listening in all the time.
I suspect that might have happened to me too.
A few years ago, my wife and I were driving somewhere. She had her cell phone with her but wasn’t talking on it. During the drive, I happened to mention that Adirondack chairs were more comfortable than they look. I hadn’t said anything at all about Adirondack chairs for years, and probably hadn’t even thought of them. Within the hour, we were getting email ads for, you guessed it, Adirondack chairs, and we kept getting ads on the phone and on our home computer for months.
I know damned well that phones listen all the time, and so do all sorts of “smart” appliances. If they ever come to get me for wrongthink, there’ll be plenty of evidence.
We still don’t own an Adirondack chair.
That’s happened to me before also. Just talking about something and BINGO! there’s an ad for it.
“He figures the phone is listening in all the time.”
It is. My phone is not allowed in my office for that reason.