I have a ten-year old in my household. As such, I recently got Cars 2 on Netflix. I have found that that particular movie does not play on an ordinary Blu-Ray player. Assuming the issue was a firmware upgrade, I consulted Google. A few hours later, I opened up Talking Points Memo. This is what I saw:

The circled advertisement is one of several ads for new Blu-Ray players. The most invasive-sounding one indicated that, rather than upgrading my firmware, I should just buy a new Blu-Ray player.

The funny thing is that I absolutely knew what Google’s business model was years ago. Most of the crap I Google, however, is not particularly identifiable. It took this one rather specific item to slap me into the realization that Google must have a creepily detailed history of me. And you. I noticed that the most recent hotel I’ve used was now displayed on anything travel related. As well, the sorts of things I access in regular usage are pretty ordinary. But certain things I look up a lot may mark me as a touch weird. If I had to divide my Google searches into just two categories, there is only one logical separating line: 1) science, 2) bizarre. Strangely, the second category almost entirely encompasses my interest in politics. Over the last decade, politics seems to have become a nationwide study in abnormal psychology. Now anyone with access to my Google searches will see that I have an unhealthy interest in the American Civil War and the White Supremacy/Christian Identity movement. It’s a good thing I’m not white, or some people might have gotten the wrong impression…