My girlfriend was excited to see JOHN MAYER last Saturday. I sent her the SPOTIFY playlist I've maintained for years. Wanted to make sure she was ready. I mentioned that he does amazing covers at his live show. And one of them is BEYONCÉ's "XO." I texted her a link to the track via iMessage. Within a few minutes after that text, I got an unsolicited email from the private jet company XOJET. I've never chartered one. I didn't sign up to their list. Now, I am not a paranoid guy. But lately, the uncanny coincidences of things I talk about in the presence of ALEXA (My girlfriend calls her my other girlfriend), or text, or I search for on GOOGLE, seem to end up in other places. Now you'll hear comments like the ad networks embedded in these sites don't know who you are. You are anonymous to them. They don't share your data. Well, maybe they don't know JASON HIRSCHHORN's name. But they know USER 1234567890. They know who I am. I overheard a friend was searching for "relationship pills" on Google, and then FACEBOOK or INSTAGRAM or whatever is pushing those ads to him. Before I had my heart surgery, I did a lot of research on my own. In the privacy of my home, on my laptop, on Google. But again, those searches and topics followed me to robocall voicemails, email marketing, and other social networks and sites. And as I didn't click on them or engage, sometimes the follow-ups become different marketing language or more aggressive. Sort of like the tactics that TRUMP's so-called digital genius employed. Some, like my friend PETER PHAM, think all of this is amazing. You've shown intent, the interwebs are responding, and helping you find something to make a decision. Content, commerce, whatever. Then you throw in data breaches. I use the very buggy, but useful password manager 1PASSWORD. It has a great feature that tells you what accounts have been compromised. I'd say minimum 1/4 of my logins have been compromised. 99% of which I've never heard from said companies about the breach or they weren't reported in the media. And the phone, a real dependable form of communication. Well, that's all but done. I get 20 robocalls a day on my mobile. More on my landline. Yes, I have a landline still. But anyway, the f***ing phone company is busy buying media companies and can't stop my phone from ringing. And again, I'm not paranoid but you think Chinese hackers breached telco or other site's data to get my mobile number? Why do I ask? Because I'm almost fluent in MANDARIN if I get one more robocall in that language. That said, I wish I spoke Mandarin. Is all this ok with you? I want what I want when I want. And I want walls around my searches and information. Much of this is our fault. I invited Alexa into my home. I search for things I want private on the open internet. But where are the ethics? Is DC going to help protect us? These are the morons that asked ZUCKERBERG how FACEBOOK makes money. Really people? Now this isn't some weird anomaly like my friends and I play around with: ZANDER LURIE, JASON KRIKORIAN, MIKE MARQUEZ, JIM LANZONE, DAVID SZE, CATHY KRIKORIAN, JOHN DIETZ and I were convinced by BLAKE KRIKORIAN that the number "37" is the most randomly picked number. And we see it all the time, all over the world, in real life, on TV, in movies, etc. That's just fun. These examples I laid out are happening. You know it's happened to you. Those at those sites say it isn't. But it is. Are you ok with that? I'm not. What have you seen? Tell me about your ad targeting "coincidences." It's sinister and uncanny... Happy Birthday to KRUTI PATEL GOYAL, AMANDA GIAMPORTONE SMITH, MELINDA LEE, JODIE PLATT, HOWARD LINDZON, GLENN BRIFFA, FRANKLIN BINNS, and PATRICK FOARDE.