South Africa, April 1 -- Remember that time you talked about buying a new couch, and suddenly every ad on your phone was for sofas? You never searched for it. You never typed it out. Yet, somehow, brands knew exactly what you were thinking. That's not marketing magic, it's surveillance disguised as personalisation.

Hyper-personalised advertising is one of the biggest trends in marketing, driven by AI, data tracking, and algorithms that know more about you than your best friend. But here's the question: when does personalised marketing stop being helpful and start becoming a privacy nightmare?

Many brands argue that hyper-personalisation enhances customer experience, making ads more relevant and reducing noise. But privacy advocates, and...