Programmatic ads have gotten so creepy that I now see products I only whispered about near my phone. But the real question isn't privacy—it's whether all this tracking actually makes ads better for anyone except the platforms. I run a small e-commerce store, and our conversion rates from retargeting are terrible compared to simple search ads. If we're honest, most of the 'precision targeting' is just a way to charge brands more for the same impressions we used to buy cheaper. I'd rather go back to contextual placements, where the relevance comes from the content I'm reading, not my browsing history.