I get targeted ads from google all the time when logged out, even on machines where I have never logged in.
There seems to be correlation between targeting on multiple devices until I nuke all the cookies, etc.
Maybe you mean you only tie my profile to my real name and employer() while I am logged in? Or maybe there are N profiles tied to each machine, and one is "logged out but probably owned by a similar / the same person as these other machines".
() We use google's office suite instead of microsoft at work, leading to hilarious privacy snafus.
There seems to be correlation between targeting on multiple devices until I nuke all the cookies, etc.
Do you have a specific example? Was this on a Google property (search, youtube, gmail) or on a third party site? Are you sure that those ads came from Google?
Is it possible that we just identified both of your cookies as a user who is interested in topic X without linking them?
In other words, when you're signed out, ads can follow you around, but in the network it should seem like you are a different user from your signed-in version. This way, signing out has a consequence.
So, even if you're not connecting logged-out users, it seems to me that you might be connecting different logged-in users accounts.
I don't mind; I'd rather have targeted ads than not; though it does seem a bit creepy and often it's useless - I'm sick of seeing ads for stuff I already bought; you're losing cash there!