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A few years ago, I was using a fairly tight uBlock Origin configuration, and I was careful about my browsing, and so however I did it, the advertisers and social media really didn't seem to draw a bead on my interests at all. Targeted ads were very poorly targeted and all over the map. Recommendations were shoddy, and I didn't seem to be tracked much from site to site.

Around the time I picked up a new Android phone, I kind of decided to open up. Morally, I felt that too much adblocking was me ripping off the websites I use and rely on (don't care about the rest) and so I loosened my privacy controls and I let them see who I really was.

And the change was night and day. It didn't take long for targeted ads to get really smart. Recommendations are in tune with my interests, albeit not always useful or shrewd. What I do one site gets noticed by others.

I really don't think I could've held it all off for long. I've gone back to adblocking, albeit at the DNS level; I don't use a browser extension anymore.

I feel like Internet use is a calculated risk, and it just helps to be aware of how much we can be tracked, and what-all can be harvested and sold down the river. It's not helpful to be paranoid, but I still get annoyed at the injustice of it all.