After a week at my mom’s house I'm getting ads for her toothpaste brand
My wife's family is from Romania. A few months ago while eating with our children we were discussing flags, and I mentioned that Chad's flag is identical to the Romanian flag. The wife's phone, with Facebook and Whatsapp and a million junk apps installed was nearby.<p>The very next day I open Youtube and one of the suggested videos is an explanation of the Chad and Romanian flags. I had not searched for anything relevant, and upon asking the children and wife (only people present) if they had mentioned the conversation to anybody or looked for something online, they say that they hadn't. And I believe them, I'm always presenting to them small bits of information about the world even though I know that 99% of it gets forgotten immediately.<p>That was a few months ago.<p>Lately I have been unable to fall asleep. I refuse to use the phone or any electronic devices after 12 (and wear Gunnars after the sun goes down) but in any case I lie in bed sometimes until the sun rises. I mentioned this to one of my kids (5 years old) a few days ago, I don't know whose phones were where. But the very next day I get an advertisement for "Medicines for those sleepless nights". Now maybe, just maybe, one of the older children or the wife used a phone late at night that specific night. But it seems far too far fetched to imagine that this happened exactly the day after I mentioned that I sometimes don't sleep.<p>I am 100% convinced that our phones are listening for keywords and assigning us to categories based on that.