[danudey]

I've had that problem before as well. My wife was going to Mexico and looking for a new swimsuit, and so I was hitting up the SwimCo website. Cue three months of women's swimwear ads from SwimCo – and nothing else. Almost every single ad on every single page was the same ad in different shapes, all of them for SwimCo.

Recently too I've noticed that Amazon is putting ads in my Instagram feed for specifically things that I've looked at on Amazon within the last day or two. I'll literally click a link to a book or do a search, and then four hours later it'll show up in an ad in the app.

Aside from being kind of pointless (I already know about these items, why are you showing them to me later that day?), it's also all kinds of creepy and unsettling to see Amazon advertising six things I've seen recently, and not even on the same device I was viewing them on.

[weavie]

Whats worse is when colleagues at work can look over your shoulder and see everything you are considering buying. Luckily for me my purchasing habits are pretty mundane, but I can imagine this could get quite embarrassing for people shopping for more risky items.

[dEnigma]

Indeed. It was especially awkward after I searched for "Willy Wonka costume", which prompted Amazon to also show me the results for "Willy costume". Some of those items were then clearly visible in almost every Amazon ad and recommendation I received during the next couple of months.