Targeted Advertising

I DON'T really mind, although occasionally find it worrying, that my every move is being tracked on the internet and every little bit of information about me is being gathered by firms desperate to sell me their goods.

Hence, my Facebook page is full of ads for wrinkle cream and weight loss products - can't think why -  and I'm later invited to buy every book I've ever glanced at on Amazon. If I order a double-widget screw facilitating hammer drill (or something) for the dearly beloved (a cabinet-maker), I am later bombarded with ads for other extremely interesting (as in, dull as ditchwater) wood-working gadgets.

I get "hilarious" posts from cat websites, all convinced that I desperately want to see yet another moggie climbing the curtains. Not that I mind those....

If I look wistfully at dresses that would just about fit around one leg, those self-same dresses later appear as ads on another website I happen to be looking at.

I accept all that but WHY in the name of all that's holy did I get THIS on my Facebook page?

A catheter? What on earth have I looked at on the internet that makes anybody think I would be at all interested in buying my own catheter? How does that even work? (No, please don't answer that.)

I'd look it up on the internet - or even apply for that "free sample" - but I'm scared of being inundated with similar ads.

Just for the record, I would like it to be known that as an adult, I HAVE NEVER PEED MYSELF.

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  1. We're all very pleased to know your record on adult incontinence. As for the advertising, I used to get catheter ads on my Facebook page, now I get ridiculously expensive watches and strange-looking sunglasses. Recently in emails I was offered Viagra and also walk-in baths. What are they trying to tell me?

  2. I don't know, Mark. You'd have thought you'd get ads for running gear and tickets to see One Direction, wouldn't you? He, he.