There is a difference between

* 20 million people watched show X-Episode 5, and

* notatoad watched show X-Episode 5 on 28-July-2023 at 8pm. We can also correlate that that they used UberEats to order Thai Cuisine at 7 pm on the same day, and that a certain group he belongs to was Y% more likely to buy the product placed within that show.

The second kind of information will be used in the future against you, to extract the maximum amount of money from you for services that "you just can't miss", after being bombarded with ads and social media influencers in sufficient quantity.

I used to order Chinese take out to watch every new episode of Burn Notice. I’m not concerned about companies knowing this and using it “against me” in targeted advertising.

this sounds pretty excellent. i wish some advertiser had suggested this to me when burn notice was still on the air.

The point of correlating data has already been brought up, but ultimately no answer will be satisfactory.

Some people consider it a problem and some people don’t.

The former is more sensitive to their data being collected and leveraged and the latter “has nothing to hide” or simply prefers targeted ads.

Some are against manipulation attempts with the goal to be parted with their money and others go all in on “personal responsibility”.

They’re entirely incompatible positions and any debate back and forth would be a waste of time of both parties.