You Google It Once, And Now It Is Everywhere. How?

You look up a pair of heels once, and suddenly, they governate your existence. You didn’t even click 'Add to Cart'; you simply lingered. Hours later, they appear again, the same boots, but now on the side of an article about climate anxiety. Then again, tucked between your messages, their laces gleaming like a whisper. Days pass. Your travel, change Wi-Fi networks, or even log out. Yet there they are. Like a gangrene that refuses to be exterminated. Like a toxic ex-boyfriend who disturbs your peace every single time they feel you have finally moved on, just because. Like a mosquito in the dark, small, invisible, but engineered to find your skin. Because consent, the dilemma of the century, is not exactly a word we’d correlate with algorithms. In their world, curiosity is commitment. Let’s hope that specific arrogance of assumption never learns to pass itself off as truth in ours. Just imagine what that would mean. Horrific.

Anyways, the reasoning that stays imprisoned with algorithms is one of the rawest forms of haunting to ever exist, for it is not about the presence of what follows you, but the absence of your ability to escape it. But that is an issue for another day. Today, however, we’d like to dissect the engines that orchestrate this haunting, highlighting how every innocent search is not just an innocent search, for beneath it lies an infrastructure built to remember, correlate, and predict.

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Your Data Is Actually The Currency

What does Google do for a living? What is the exact job it does? If we were to ask 100 people, the answer of them all would be, without the slightest hesitation, “search”. Actually, it is not search, but surveillance monetized into relevance. The harvest starts with the queries you make, the videos you watch, and the maps you consult. At some point, each of the actions mentioned above becomes part of an intricate tapestry that the company owns rather than merely observes. Through various means, including Search, Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Chrome, and Android, Google does not miss even the tiniest opportunity to collect behavioral data.

One might ask, “Yet how does all this data coalesce into a detailed image of me?” Well, here’s how:

• You search for boots, right? Since we opened with this example, it makes sense to stick with it throughout. So, this is the first and most important signal for Google, for it captures your intent (whether you are browsing casually, or you are ready to buy), your style preference, price sensitivity (whether you click on mid-range vs. luxury products), and also timeline (searching at midnight versus midday hints at lifestyle patterns).

• Your location, let’s say, in “rainy London” is a goldmine for Google, as it allows for the inference of weather-dependent needs, local fashion trends, as well as economic and demographic indicators. Essentially, for Google, where you are tells the story of how you live, move, and spend your time.

• Your beloved YouTube playlist “True Crime Documentaries” might not be so faithful after all. Yes, the irony is cruel. Even your carefully curated playlist conspires against you. Here, your curiosity about crime stories could signal an interest in mystery novels, Gothic clothing, and even safety/security products.

Together, they become a multidimensional map of the living profile of your desire, a statistical twin of you.

Cookies, Pixels, IDs, Also Known As The Web Of Watchers

Maybe you have always felt like somebody is watching you. And you know what, there’s some merit to that thought. Every website that uses Google Analytics or Google Ads drops a tracking cookie into your browser , a file that, on its own, may be harmless. However, when we multiply that by millions of sites, apps, and services, it becomes increasingly clear that what appears harmless at first glance conceals a deeper reality. Every app that integrates Google’s SDK embeds a unique device ID, ensuring your activity is linked across platforms, even if you switch devices. Your phone, tablet, and laptop aren’t separate; they are all threads in the same web, feeding the same algorithmic engine. God, even the pixels, those damned invisible bits of code on websites and emails, report your attention in real time. How long you lingered, where your cursor hovered, which parts of the page captured your interest. They tell the full story, like a spiteful mother-in-law who can’t hide her disdain for her daughter.

Interesting Prompt: Are Cookies, Pixels, and IDs Threatening Your Digital Identity?

Well, they are not necessarily threatening your digital identity, but as they track your every move, the only thing that can serve as a line of defense is a custom email domain. Unlike generic addresses, a personalized domain creates a unique barrier between you and the algorithms that never stop seeking to stitch together your online behavior. It doesn’t make you invisible, though, but it limits the ease with which trackers correlate your activity across platforms, giving you more control over your digital identity.

You, Sold In Milliseconds

First, your profile is assembled in an instant: your age, location, browsing history, even that fleeting curiosity about “boots.” We have already established that. This digital dossier, however. enters an automated system called real-time bidding (RTB). Advertisers see your profile as a potential customer, or more accurately, as valuable inventory. Within milliseconds, hundreds, sometimes thousands, of advertisers submit bids for the right to show you their ad. The system calculates who offers the most for your attention, considering your predicted likelihood of engaging or making a purchase. And then, the winner’s ad is displayed before your brain even registers that a choice was being made.

So, the boots you “saw once” are not following you by magic. They are the product of this relentless auction. You are traded, packaged, and sold, again and again, with precision so fast and invisible it feels like thought itself. Unfortunately, dear reader, in this world, you are not a consumer; you are currency, another life claimed by the insatiable logic of capitalist ambition.

Every hesitation, every click, every pause is a bid for your attention, and the stakes, well, they are you.