Welcome to your wonderful Wednesday, friend. Remember when talking to your TV or fridge felt like sci-fi? Now Siri’s your sous-chef, and your thermostat tells you what temperature you like. FaceTime, autocorrect, smart homes, all of today’s tech was yesterday’s cartoon punch line.

🔮 One animated show saw it all coming with eyebrow-raising accuracy. Take a guess which show predicted the rise of texting fails, robotic appliances and those awkward FaceTime angles: A) Futurama, B) The Jetsons, C) The Simpsons or D) South Park. The answer patiently awaits you at the end. 

P.S. Got a friend who still yells at their smart assistant? Forward this to them, they’ll relate. — Kim

Most people have never heard of companies like Mobilewalla or Gravy Analytics, but they know you. 

The FTC just clamped down on these two for secretly vacuuming up people’s real-time location data without consent. Not just estimated neighborhoods or passing GPS flickers. 

We’re talking exact coordinates, tied to your phone’s unique ID, showing where you went, when you were there, how long you stayed and where you headed to next. Basically your entire Tuesday, sold for $0.03.

Worse, they weren’t just tracking your shopping trips or traffic routes. They were building detailed profiles based on deeply personal locations, including:

🏥 Hospitals and clinics

Cancer centers. Fertility clinics. Mental health facilities. Addiction recovery programs. This isn’t just data. It’s your health privacy being packaged and sold to who knows who.

🕍 Places of worship

Yes, they tracked churches, synagogues, mosques and temples. Your religious beliefs became part of a marketable dataset whether you knew it or not.

🎖️ Military bases

Tracking phones at military installations is a national security issue. That didn’t stop these brokers.

🗳 Protests and political gatherings

Presidential rallies. Pro-Israel. Anti-Israel. Black Lives Matter. Women’s marches. Your right to assemble turned into a precise data point for targeted ads or worse.

And that’s just two companies. There are thousands more doing the same thing. This is why I don’t mess around when it comes to protecting my data.

🔒 Make it stop

Incogni does the work for you. It contacts data brokers and demands they delete your personal info, then follows up to make sure they do it. They’ve gotten my data removed from over 1,400 data broker and people search sites.

Since then?

• No more creepy texts or spammy calls
• No more junk mail or credit card offers
• No more digital tracking I never signed up for
• No more ads that are super targeted

💥 My readers get an exclusive 60% off and a money-back guarantee. If you’ve ever felt like the internet knows too much about you, it’s because it does. And Incogni is how you fight back. You’ll be so glad you did.

🏠 Hackers are stealing home titles: They can take your deed and borrow big money in your name. Home Title Lock monitors your title 24/7. Use code KIM for a free title history report and a 14-day trial of Million Dollar Triple Lock Protection when you sign up.*

💼 Job seeker paranoia is real: New AI tools make it easier than ever for recruiters who are just scammers to look legit on LinkedIn and video interviews. Spot the fakes: Verify the company, check their official site for the position and watch for emails with odd time zones (paywall link).

Fake AI video generators: Hackers have a new trick: websites that promise to turn your images into videos. But once you upload a file, they send back a ZIP named something like “VideoDreamMachineAI.mp4.exe.” The twist? It’s actually malware that steals your personal info. Watch out for them in Facebook groups especially.

🗺️ Map wars begin: Google renamed the “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America” for U.S. users, and Mexico’s not having it. President Claudia Sheinbaum is suing, saying the U.S. can’t rename an international body of water just because it passed a House bill. Rumor is the line is drawn at renaming tacos “Lettuce Pray Wraps.” 

Deepfake dumpster fire: Jamie Lee Curtis went full Final Girl on Meta after a sketchy AI ad used her image in a fake endorsement. She posted to Insta, tagged Zuck directly and got the ad pulled. Lesson here: Don’t mess with someone who’s survived multiple maniac attacks in Halloween and nonstop sequels and reboots.

Hungry, thin and expensive: Samsung’s new featherlight S25 Edge is 30% thinner, ditching the telephoto lens and battery capacity. It’s $1,099, which buys a titanium frame and crippling battery anxiety. Apple’s upcoming iPhone 17 is also trimming down, ditching a second camera in the process. Looks like the Ozempic craze has hit smartphones, too.

🧬 Theranos 2: Elizabeth Holmes’ boyfriend wants $50M for, you guessed it, the same Theranos blood diagnostics idea that sent her to the slammer. Billy Evans, hotel heir and now aspiring blood mogul, just launched the startup. Holmes is advising from prison. Rumor has it the pitch deck just reads: “But this time, it works. Promise. Pinky swear.”

🐱 Today’s your last chance to fetch more savings.

• Walk with a no-pull harness (11% off) that won’t choke your pup.
• Muddy paws? This washable doormat (28% off) catches all that dirt.
• Snag a pet door (22% off) with three flaps to lock the weather outside.
• This smart fountain (43% off) tracks if your kitty is drinking enough water.
• Clean your furball with a vacuum (20% off) that comes with seven tools.
• And a pet bed (5% off) shaped like ramen. Weird? Yep. Comfy? Totally.

🐾 More pawsome picks: That’s just a taste. Hit this link for more Amazon pet steals your furry friend will bark (or purr) for.

🛒 Visit my Amazon store for more of my recommendations.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Copy-paste a suspicious email in your favorite AI chatbot and ask, “Is this legit or a scam? Explain why.” AI can point out red flags.

On the grid: Turning on the grid on your phone’s camera helps you line up your shot. Using the rule of thirds, it splits your screen into nine boxes. On iPhone, go to Settings > Camera and toggle on Grid. For Android, open your Camera app > Settings (gear icon) > switch Grid lines on.

🗑️ Trashing your tech? Don’t just toss it. Check out Earth911’s recycling database. They’ve got over 100,000 places to drop off over 350 kinds of materials, from old laptops to regular paper and plastic. Type it in the search bar and plug in your ZIP code. Boom, you’ll see where to go.

Save links with Quick Note: Browsing a website on your iPad and spot something you want to remember? While you’re on the page, swipe diagonally from the bottom-right corner to open a Quick Note. Tap Add Link in the top-left corner, then hit Done. Later, open the Notes app, tap the link and pick up where you left off.

🔌 DIY energy assessments: Before calling a pro, check for indoor air leaks yourself. You could save 10%-20% a year on energy bills just by plugging gaps around your home. Here’s a two-pack of caulk trim (12% off) to stop your money from slipping through the cracks.

Recover copied items: Ever copied a link or some text and wished you could get it back later? On Windows, turn on Clipboard History to save your most recently copied items. Go to Settings > System > Clipboard and toggle it On. Next time you need something, just press Windows key + V to view and paste.

“Kim, I heard you talking about extra screens for a laptop. I would love that! What do I buy?” – Aaron in Philadelphia

Ever been working on your laptop, juggling 14 tabs, two Google Docs and a Zoom call, wishing you had more screen real estate? 

Turns out, you don’t need to fantasize about a command center anymore. Think trading station vibes, but portable. The ALLVIA 14-inch laptop monitor extender (30% right now, too!) turns your single screen into a triple display beast. 

Triple the screens, and either triple the efficiency, or, let’s be honest, multitask YouTube and Netflix.

📺 The answer is: C) The Simpsons. Yep, America’s favorite yellow, four-fingered family predicted everything from smartwatches to autocorrect fails to FaceTime flubs decades before we were all yelling, “Siri, stop!” at the dinner table. 

They nailed the whole data tracking nightmare before your iPhone was even old enough to have a charger that didn’t change every two years. When Marge said, “Homer, are you listening to me?” it turns out the NSA probably was, too.

If the Simpsons entered a witness protection program, what would Homer’s alias be? John D’oh! (I heard that groan. I think you’re just hungry.)

🧠 Laughed? Learned? Both? Forward this to a friend who has no clue their phone might be more talkative than they are. Tomorrow, I have the latest travel scams that are spreading. You don’t want to miss that! Until then, may your signal be as strong as your spirit. 📶💪 — Kim

📣 Don’t keep me a secret: Share this email with friends (or copy URL here)