[badthingfactory]

I had a surgical procedure done at the beginning of the year. I hadn't explicitly shared this information at any point online or visited any websites related to the surgery. A few days after visiting the hospital for some tests, Google AdSense was showing me ads for surgeons at that specific hospital.

I'm not sure who I was most disappointed in. The hospital for purchasing the ad, Google for tracking my hospital visits, or myself for trading privacy for the convenience of services like Google Now.

[pmiller2]

And, to top it all off, those ads were utterly ineffective, since you'd already had the procedure done!

Amazon and eBay have this same problem, wherein they show you things similar to things you've already bought.

[ceejayoz]

> Amazon and eBay have this same problem, wherein they show you things similar to things you've already bought.

Which is especially silly when it's something you'd only buy once. "Oh, you bought a table saw? Why not fifteen more?!"