Define track please. You seem to assume they're doing something nefarious or that they couldn't observe if you walked into a store.

To answer your question - yes. If you want relevant ads for items you might be interested in, then advertisers need to know what you are interested in. It's that simple.

Your own cited article about Target is evidence of why this is a good thing.

Your position that advertising is manipulative and unnecessary is disconnected with reality as well.