scarily... They don't need to to be this creepy, but even I'm a tad baffled by this.
Yesterday me and a few friends were at a pub quiz, of course no phones allowed, so none were used.
It came down to a tie break question of my team and another. "What is the run time of the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the ring" according to IMDb.
We answered and went about our day. Today my friend from my team messaged me - top post on his "today feed" is an article published 23 hours ago.....
Forgive the pointless red circle.... I didnt take the screenshot.
My friend isn't a privacy conscience person by any means, but he didnt open IMDb or google anything to do with the franchise and hasn't for many months prior. I'm aware its most likely an incredible coincidence, but when stuff like this happens I can easily understand why many people are convinced everyone's doom brick is listening to them....
If you are worried about it then do something about it there are alot of things you can do to improve your privacy. If that's not the case then forget it
You can't with an OS full controlled by Google or Apple. You can only alleviate the problem, using alternatives, such as LinageOS, Ubuntu Mobile, de-googled Android or another distro, but only if you have root access. https://www.pcmag.com/picks/break-away-from-android-ios-7-free-open-source-mobile-oses-to-try
As I stated, not my phone, I dont get this stuff happen to me personally