Privacy Settings - What am I Missing?

[Ben]

So this is either weird, or I'm missing some obvious setting because I'm a dummy or something. Our story begins when Ben switches from a Galaxy S5 to a Galaxy S9...

Ever since I've gotten the new phone, it has somehow been talking to my computer regarding my web use. I use the Google "recommended news" thing on the phone, which as far as I know, runs through Chrome. So if I was logged into my Google account on my computer using Chrome, I could totally see synching and stuff going on. HOWEVER, I almost exclusively use Firefox on the computer for web browsing, and am pretty sure I have all the privacy stuff in Firefox on.

So as an example, I was looking at gun safes the other day on Firefox. The next morning, an online article on buying gun safes was recommended to me on the phone. This seems strange, and I can't figure out where the connection is being made. I can see it when I watch Youtube videos, since I'm logged into my Google account on Firefox for Gmail, so it "synchs" that history. But some random website on Firefox?

Any ideas? Am I missing some privacy setting?

[RoadKingLarry]

There is no privacy "online".
Unless you go completely anonymous with your browsers phone and PC anything you do on one will be correlated to your other electronic personas. email addresses, Google accounts... all of them are now tied together. You cannot escape the terrible gaze of The Eye of Sauron.

[WLJ]

So this is either weird, or I'm missing some obvious setting because I'm a dummy or something. Our story begins when Ben switches from a Galaxy S5 to a Galaxy S9...

Ever since I've gotten the new phone, it has somehow been talking to my computer regarding my web use. I use the Google "recommended news" thing on the phone, which as far as I know, runs through Chrome. So if I was logged into my Google account on my computer using Chrome, I could totally see synching and stuff going on. HOWEVER, I almost exclusively use Firefox on the computer for web browsing, and am pretty sure I have all the privacy stuff in Firefox on.

Android is Google
Chrome is Google
Firefox defaults to google for it's search engine, check the settings for that

[Ben]

Firefox defaults to google for it's search engine, check the settings for that

You know what? Duh. I'd like to chalk it up to age, but that was just stupid. Of course that's where it's coming from. As much as I talk about switching, I always still use the googles for searching.  

I think what threw me off is that it wasn't happening on the S5.

As to the Eye of Sauron, yeah, my plan after I move is that I'm going to keep the Google account and email as sort of a throwaway, just because having the account lets you do more on the phone, and yeah, I have to admit it's all cool stuff, if invasive. But I'm going to switch to Duckduckgo on the computer and also get a Proton Mail account linked to my own domain and use that for friends, banks, etc.

[cordex]

Advertising and recommendations are often IP married if nothing else.