Am I being paranoid about recommended content and ads?

[Anonymous]

Yesterday afternoon, I made an uncommon dessert. I didn’t look up a recipe. I didn’t shop for ingredients. I didn’t discuss the dessert by name or any ingredients with DH, the only other person at home. I certainly didn’t post anything about it.

This morning, content about this uncommon dessert and several similarly flavored items are all over my feed.

How does that happen?

[Anonymous]

AI.

The AI has been subtly pushing you to make this dessert for weeks. You only now realize the ads are there because you made the dessert.

The AI also knows that you bought the ingredients at some point in time.

The AI knows who was in your house, if you had guests, and anything they searched for afterwards.

The AI can look at the power usage of your house and know the temperature setting of the oven and when you opened your fridge.

[Anonymous]

It is common knowledge, OP, that Alexa and Siri listen to conversations. There have been lawsuits about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is common knowledge, OP, that Alexa and Siri listen to conversations. There have been lawsuits about it.

Sorry, I reread your post and see you did not discuss it. In that case, maybe the PP is correct and you saw something online that made you think of this dessert, and perhaps after making it, you casually took a photo, without posting it, or spoke the name when putting it in the fridge?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is common knowledge, OP, that Alexa and Siri listen to conversations. There have been lawsuits about it.

Sorry, I reread your post and see you did not discuss it. In that case, maybe the PP is correct and you saw something online that made you think of this dessert, and perhaps after making it, you casually took a photo, without posting it, or spoke the name when putting it in the fridge?

Thanks.

I would be less weirded out if I had taken a photo or said the name or even signature ingredient at any point.

I’m wondering though if my camera is somehow on all the time so that simply using my phone while the dessert was on the table might be enough to cause this.

I would think that maybe AI was subtly pushing me for weeks, but I didn’t have a craving for it. I only made it because I had a key ingredient on hand that is perishable and due to expire this week. Even weirder, the dessert is not a common use of this ingredient. AI could have suggested dozens of other uses.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think you are paranoid. I feel like it is the most likely answer. I had a conversation with my almost 80 year father talking about an article/study on cell phones and teens. As a function of age, it was a very vague conversation (my dad didn’t say anything about the publication, the study, etc). He only mentioned he saw something about teens and cell phone usage. A few hours later, the exact article popped up in my Facebook feed.