Although this does sound like a case of ad retargeting (as a number of other commentators have mentioned), it's worth being aware of the 'data brokerage' industry, which may or may not become more closely linked with advertising in the future.
Essentially, with so many institutions collecting and storing (even fairly anonymous) profile/intent data (browsed this page, purchased these items), there's an ability and motivation to have back-channels between data-driven advertisers; buying and selling user data to inform each other's targeting.
Retargeting pushes the user experience in this direction while being arguably more benign; it is a little more transparent and simple to understand than data sharing.
This actually goes much further than you realize. There are companies buying credit card purchase data and plugging it into a Data Management Platform along with billions of data points a day and using that to buy their ad inventory from the real time ad exchanges. Were talking about mapping a purchase in a store back to a banner ad impression online.
I know of atleast one company actively doing this, and I am sure there are hundreds others.
Thanks Dave - I didn't know the function of a DMP (or the acronym), so that's an interesting thing to learn about. Sounds like there are some real-time data auction houses for advert targeting as well, which is interesting.
I expect the volumes and retention of this kind of data are fairly unregulated at the moment? I certainly haven't heard anything consistent as a consumer about how this data is collected/used (also bearing in mind international considerations in many cases)
well that prob explains how when I purchase some dev screencasts on ruby, I get an email the same day with ruby books. the freakiest however was amazon recommended parenting books 2 months into my wifes pregnancy, before we had even started telling ppl.
Essentially, with so many institutions collecting and storing (even fairly anonymous) profile/intent data (browsed this page, purchased these items), there's an ability and motivation to have back-channels between data-driven advertisers; buying and selling user data to inform each other's targeting.
Retargeting pushes the user experience in this direction while being arguably more benign; it is a little more transparent and simple to understand than data sharing.