They know what product I'm going to buy... after I've bought it. They've almost got it right; all they need is a time machine.

I love it when I've bought jewelry for my wife and every damned ad is for the same jewelry store. Hard enough hiding a gift, now I have to hide my browser like I'm sneaking around watching porn.

That's just what either private browsing or ad/tracking blockers are for now. Under the coming regime, they'll track where you've been but you'll still (for now) be able to block the resultant ads.

This is not the fault of the platform, but the advertiser.

When you see an ad that's too tailored most people just get scared anyway.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I don't believe that for a second.

I've seen relevant ads beside search results on Google, but that doesn't really take a lot of magic to figure out that when I search for "Aeropress", I'm interested in coffee.

Ads in podcasts have been somewhat effective as well. I use Blue Apron, I like Audible, I've checked out Squarespace, I bought a Casper dog bed. AFAIK, none of the podcasts know anything about me, but they do know generally who their audience is.

It's true. Here are two pages of references from Bruce Schneier. https://books.google.com/books?id=MwF-BAAAQBAJ&pg=PT194&lpg=...