> but figured that there weren't that many people over the age of 118 floating around
The letter shown in the example was sent to someone who died in 1992 so there's at least some evidence to suggest that floating around is not a necessary condition to receive the letter.
Which is a natural function of an increase in the number of pages you like and the number of friends you have, an in crease in the number of pieces of content they produce and your non-increasing attention span. You will see less of content from any one source as a function of time. The source can work around this by producing more interesting content that the algorithm decides you're more likely to want to see or by paying to have their content shown to you.
I feel he was right to disclose the illegal collection of phone records. However, he was wrong to disclose pretty much everything else that he did. He disclosed details of activities that weren't illegal and has hurt the NSAs ability to do its job on behalf of the United States.
It's much more than just the things you buy for the new baby. Having a child is a watershed moment in your life from a marketing perspective:
1. Your life is different. You used to self-herd [1] yourself to one set of brands and businesses before you had a child. That is now broken. Marketers have a small window of opportunity to get you hooked on new brands and businesses. Once they do, you'll self-herd to them for a very long time, if not for ever.
2. You are tired and you don't make the best decisions in that situation. This leaves you especially susceptible to marketing, which, because of #1, will have a long-lasting impact.
That being said, the article is mostly bullshit. My wife recently had a baby. We didn't keep it a secret in any way on Facebook, Google or by our purchase behavior. We didn't get hit by any kind of directed marketing (except for retargeting ads online) until after we had the child and the record of birth is part of the public county records.