&gt; &quot;Single anomalous data point&quot;? His description is exactly how targeted advertising works for pretty much everybody<p>The anomaly is not how targeting works, the anomaly is that it &quot;doesn&#x27;t work&quot; on him. The fact is that most people <i>do</i> occasionally buy things because of advertising, particularly targeted advertising.<p>&quot;Doesn&#x27;t work&quot; is in quotes because I suspect that he has in fact bought something based on a targeted ad in the past.