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Comment by cschep | Hacker News Reader

someone probably googled “kayak” from your wifi?

Hmmm, I live alone and in a pretty remote area (on an island). I keep my wifi pretty secure, so, that seems pretty unlikely. But who knows, anything is possible I suppose. Maybe because I live on an island.

>Hmmm, I live alone and in a pretty remote area (on an island).

A kayak seems like a practical purchase if you live on an island.

You live on an island, see ads for kayaks and the first thing you went with was: "somebody is listening to all my conversations even though my phone battery wouldn't be able to handle a slightly long phone call"?

That's what people mean when they say there is a lot of data points that can explain things very easily without having to resort to a convoluted explanation.

Yeah, if ad targeting networks know you live on an island (easily done, location data is the most common type they get their hands on) it's pretty sensible for them to try and sell you a kayak.

Or they googled fitness or outdoors and live near water

Edit: yep

Weird it just popped up. Probably they cranked up a new algo that said, if they live near water, hit 'em with kayak ads. Why not paddle boards or boats too? Whatever.

What has the highest margin and therefore the most ad spend? Probably fancy folding kayaks. Kayaks are also popular with fishing in a way paddle boards aren’t. And either that person or his neighbors or friends are into fishing and Google knows this

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