Halfway through the article has a list of "VPNs" to keep you "safe" from tracking. Feels pretty disingenuous.

I get this is a popular topic ("your phone is listening to show you ads"). And already had some non-technical friends ask me about it. So at least the article gives a detailed explanation about targeted advertising and fingerprinting.

Except the VPN probably wouldn't help with this problem, would it? Their data isn't being intercepted by some evil MITM.

My coworker and I had exactly the same thought about that VPN ad.

It looks very much like a blogvertisment. That is a blog post written only for the purpose of actually being an advertisement for some product (in this case, for VPN providers).

The text of the article seems to directly contract the headline.

The author's phone spied on him, determined he was in the same household as his wife who had been searching for a Dremel and then it later showed him an ad for a Dremel. If that isn't spying on you to show ads, then what is it?

Apparently, by spying the author means "listen to your conversations using the mic" and not fingerprinting your browsing behavior.