But they track you across devices. Did you ever search on another device? Have you ever hovered your pointer over the image or listing on an online store? Have you ever shown interest in that product on your device? There’s so much more to it, but the main thing is priming. If you’re already the paranoid type and I say "ever notice how many blue cars are following you and most of the drivers are government agents?" then it’s likely that you'll suddenly start to take note of blue cars, and possibly believe the occupants are after you.I wasn’t in a Walmart, I was in a thrift store. I said out loud “I can find this cheaper at Walmart” and it happened to be a bottle of Curve in my hand. 4 hours later Facebook was showing me a Walmart ad for the exact same fragrance, a 15+ year old scent I never googled or searched anywhere on my device. Not the first time I’ve experienced that happening either.
There’s an easy solve to this: don’t use Facebook.