Same can be said for any field, academic or not. For example, it won't do any good to dismiss cancer awareness campaigns because doctors have been saying about it for decades. It's for the public's benefit, and everyone deserves privacy.

I have all my histories turned off and once a year or so I go in and make sure they haven't added anything new for me to turn off.

Now the question is, are they really not collecting my data or have I just made it so I can't see what they have on me?

Mine's turned off. But thanks for saving me the read.

That was neat I could turn it off thanks.

I much prefer random ads anyways. Targeted ads are 90% something You've already recently bought.

With random ads sometimes you see something interesting that you didn't even know you wanted because you didn't know it even existed.

If I'm looking for a laptop I don't care to see 1000 ads for laptops, I'm not going to just click an ad and buy one I need to research and deep dive into the kind I want.

Also one or a few people turning it off doesn't matter much. The tech giants still get their demographic statistics from the ones who haven't (which is the larger percentage of the population). You could be spending money on things based on targeted ads for your demographic.

In other words, you are creeped out about wondering what they could do with your personal data if you turn it on. But you should be even more creeped out about how your daily decisions are already influenced by them using others data

Same lol

Between that and the random shit it has listed as what I get ads for...it isn't a whole lot. I spend most of time looking up highly specific things on Wikipedia or out of immediate utility, so I suppose I'm just not that interesting...also ublock origin ftw

I supply mine with fake info with the google rewards app :p
I answered the question as if I was a mother (am not and male) of 4 children, which has higher education, is into tech and fashion, has 4 children and a house.
So far I made 29,30€ in total in Play Store cash. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Sadly some of the funds lapse after some time but I have used it for smaller apps and such.

I checked my throwaway/spam account. Apparently, I'm a high-wage tech employee at a large company, and I'm also a homeowner.

Damn, they think too highly of me.

It most likely is. And if it's not your phone, then it's your car (assuming it has been built in the last few years)

What are the odds than anyone in the household searched for the shows? Targeting ads to all devices on the same IP or even devices that have previously been on the same network happens.

I was able to predict that my mom had been researching “bunion shoes” after I started seeing ads, seemingly randomly, for them not long after she came to my house to visit.

It's usually not a case of the phone listening but, more creepily, that your behavior before and after talking to your wife about new shoes signaled that you want to buy new shoes.

Ad algorithms are surprisingly perceptive about signals that aren't obvious.

I am skeptical about listening not only because it was not proven, but also because almost the exact same result is achievable via much, much simpler and omnipresent means.