idle thought #595

A childfree writer friend of mine finally worked out why she got 2 texts from her school district about non-existent unvaccinated children and a tutoring program ad. Specifically, Google selling her search data. Apparently the only reason a middle-aged woman would research names is that she’s pregnant, because no middle-aged women are writers or play pen & paper RPGs (or MMORPGs, or even some RPGs, for that matter). It also explains why if I watch stuff on my phone I get a lot of schizophrenia treatment & BetterHelp (bleh) ads. Google/Bing have no idea what to do with writer searches so assume the only reason someone would search something is if it’s personally relevant to them. It’s infuriating and kind of sad and annoyingly privacy invasive and honestly very close-minded, all at the same time.