Yep, this is exactly what happened with me.

Work hard fleeb. You can become an overlord!!

Yeah. Probably including your search history since 1999. Which makes me wonder what they have on fleeb. <GRIN>

Googling for those terms does nothing for me. Maybe they know I'm already employed by their #1 or #2 opponent in the market.

Heh.

Well, it's a fun game, at the very least.

Funny, to me, that they'd trigger on that particular account, rather than the one I've been using since gmail was nascent (with a considerably larger search history, which would include all the geeky things I've sought over the decade or more).

I tried disabling the "Google" app on my Android phone, with disastrous results.
It turns out the Google Now launcher depends on the Google app, so the home screen just went dead. I rebooted the phone and it got stuck on the splash screen. So it seems Google doesn't want you not Googling. You must Google.

Turns out the other background apps had still started. So I went to the Google Play website on my computer and told it to install a launcher on my phone. A few minutes later the phone sprung to life again. Nice.

By the way, I've been searching with DuckDuckGo for about a month now. Unlike my previous experiments with DDG, this time I haven't given up on it after finding the search results unusable. It's gotten a lot better, and is now a perfectly good replacement for Google Search.

Yowza. GoogleHitler just sent me a big fat AdSense payment. Evidently my generator video got a lot of views during hurricane season. I love hurricanes!!

My phone just sent me an alert notification, telling me to use Google Pay (which I've never used) to buy Justice League merchandise (which I have no interest in).

This isn't even targeted advertising. It's blatant spam.

Now I have to go through my settings, find every Google app, and block notifications.
I really need to root this phone so I can remove the crapware completely.


Still better than an iPhone though.

Still better than an iPhone though.

Never had my iPhone spam me.

Hmmmm.... If browsing habits are any indication Apple still leads.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/272664/market-share-held-by-mobile-browser s-in-the-us/

Then again, you're probably counting all of those crappy, infected phones that are sold in third world countries.

And if browsing habits are not any indication, which they're not, then Apple does not lead. In classic BBS tradition, I say unto you: My Computer Is Better Than Yours.

I'm looking out the window of my car right now and I see a parking meter.
A parking meter has never sent me spam either. That doesn't mean I'd want to replace my Android with it.

Enjoy your compromised device. Meanwhile, I'll continue to have a functioning smartphone.

I'm sure you and Apple are colluding with the Russians. <<ptbhppthypbphbptpbtpbpthpbpbhtpbtphbphhh>>

I've been using this Pixel 2 now for about a month.

Prety decent phone. Gets regular updates, so that reduces the chances of compromise. Marvelous pictures. Never felt any of the concerns expressed by others showed themselves to me in its use, except one... occasionally, I have trouble having taps on the edges of the screen get recognized by software that requires it, but I only have maybe one program that seems to have that requirement, and it's a game.