I showed it to her and the first thing out of her mouth was, “Is Facebook listening to me?”
Then I had to explain that HN is human-powered and the chances of Big G and Facebook and HN sharing data is pretty close to zero.
I'm fairly certain Google is listening in to conversations for ad targeting. I think your case is serendipity!
Do you know why you thought about adopting a dog randomly? Are you confusing cause and effect? Perhaps you were really being shown dog ads for six (or sixty) days and only noticed it for five.
I say this not to dismiss the fear of recording, but to raise that recording is kind of a lazy rationalization that tech companies probably favor over the other, more realistic explanation.
The idea that the ads have changed your behavior without you realizing is far more creepy. They don't have to listen to what you say because they influenced you to say it.
I never Google dog photos or anything dog related really. I have no real reason to. Also, all the ads are see are usually either finance related or tech related. The huge influx of dog adoption adverts was most certainly an anomaly. I dismissed it the first time, but the second time, it was harder to put it down to chance.
I could be wrong, and maybe they aren't listening in, however at this point, I can't say with certainty that they're not. My suspicion is officially raised!
Game of Thrones ;) ? We need to tell them apart for we might get mixed messages.