Hello, hi, happy Wednesday! We talk a ton about self-driving cars, but if you’ve been in an airplane, you’ve already been in a self-driving vehicle! Modern airplanes are computer-controlled for what percentage of the flight? Is it … A.) 10%, B.) 40%, C.) 50% or D.) 95%? Answer’s at the end!

Do me a solid. The more I know about you, the better job I can do writing about tech changes and digital-life updates that impact you. I have a super-quick poll below. Click an answer to help me help you. It’s just a yes-or-no reply. Thank you! — Kim

Do you own a home?

A loyal reader, Racquel, emailed me recently after dealing with a very angry customer at work. “Last week, she left me a voicemail and said that I was behind all her problems and she was ‘going to find’ where I lived.”

Scary, right? Even if you’re safe with what you do online, there’s so much public info about us floating around the web. And the worst part is that your personal info is out there for others to snap up completely free.

Racquel had heard me talk about Incogni, a service that removes your personal info from all the sites that exist solely to gather and share your info for their profit. “[Incogni] went to work right away. It's going to be difficult for her to find my address,” she told me.

I want you to have that safety and protection, too. Let’s take a deeper look at who’s making money by giving away or selling your data online and what can happen to you when they do.

Data-hungry data brokers

Data brokers exist only to collect and sell your personal information, often without your consent. They gather data from public records, your online activities, retail sites and anything else they can find. This can expose you to:

😡 Look, I tried to get myself out of the data brokers’ sites but gave up after three months. It was too frustrating and time-consuming. I decided to try Incogni after seeing an ad about the service, and I was very, very skeptical. I’m not sure how they do it, but Incogni got me out of these data-scraping sites.

Money-hungry people-search websites

People-search websites aggregate information from public records such as court documents, voter registrations and property records, along with social media and other online sources. In the wrong hands, this can open you up to:

Yup, I tried to get my name out of people-search sites. Like a bad rash, a new site pops up at every turn. I never thought it was possible, but Incogni got me out of these sites and put me on suppression lists so these garbage sites can’t put me back in.

You don’t have to go it alone

Incogni tracks down all the people-search and data-broker sites where your info is listed, then they submit requests to remove you.

By popular demand, they just introduced a Family Plan at a money-saving price. Check out Incogni’s Family Plan if you want to protect yourself and four loved ones.

My results: So far, Incogni has sent removal requests to over 250 data brokers and people-search sites on my behalf. I did the math, and for me to do this alone, it would’ve taken almost six weeks! That’s six weeks of doing nothing else but this. Even better, Incogni makes sure my info stays off these sites.

✅ Take back your privacy. I negotiated an exclusive deal on Incogni just for you: 60% off. I love not getting spam texts and calls, and you will, too. Btw, I get no residuals or kickbacks if you buy.

Entertain the kids, grandkids, neighbor kids or your inner kid with these fun, hot-weather staples. Get ‘em now so you’re ready anytime!

🎈 Amazing! Fill and tie 100 water balloons at once in just a minute. So much easier than back in the day.

Or go with reusable water balloons (10% off, $8.99). No bits to clean up after the fun!

🏖️ The best little toy shovels (29% off, $9.99) for digging in the sand or dirt. Get the kiddos to pull weeds while they’re at it!

24 chunky sticks of sidewalk chalk (50% off, $9.99) for doodlin’ and hopscotch. Do kids still play hopscotch? I sure hope so.

🌽 Or grab a cornhole set, which you’ll enjoy playing even after the kids leave.

🖼️ Hackers are branching out: The same hackers who infiltrated half of all Americans’ records in the recent Change Healthcare breach are at it again. They’re planning to leak names, ID numbers and birthdates from 500,000 wealthy clients at Christie's auction house unless Christie's pays up. Their site’s been down since last week, leaving $840 million Monets with no money for Degas to make the van Gogh. (Ha, I crack myself up sometimes writing this newsletter!)

Power move: T‑Mobile is shelling out $4.4 billion to acquire almost all of UScellular's network and customers and compete with the Big Two (Verizon and AT&T). If you have UScellular or T‑Mobile, expect better 5G service across the country, especially in rural areas. UScellular customers can keep their current plan or switch to T‑Mobile.

🚨 Grooming is a big problem: A Georgia man was sentenced to life in prison after he stalked and almost killed a 15-year-old girl. The two met on Snapchat, where he chatted with her until she invited him over. He showed up with duct tape, rope and a knife and sexually assaulted her before stabbing her 86 times. She survived but will likely suffer a lifetime of anguish. Please, I’m begging you to watch your kids.

What are the odds? A San Diego woman found out she had three felonies during a routine background check that relies on people-search databases. (Yup, the same ones I told about in the story above about Incogni!) The charges, dating back to 2014, included burglary, identity theft and possession of a controlled substance. Turns out, she’s innocent. The real culprit shares her exact name and birthday.

Social media is overrun with pics and videos of celebs: These product endorsements are mostly AI-generated scams. Recently impersonated? Jennifer Lopez pushing skincare, Tom Hanks promoting a dental plan and MrBeast hawking iPhones. Don’t fall for it. Look for reviews, don’t buy directly from social media, and stick to well-known brands.

🕹️ Told ya this last week: I wish I was in the business of selling police drones. The Denver Police Department will soon deploy drones to respond to 911 calls. They’ll use them to map areas before their officers show up and send live video footage back to assess the situation. Watch for all departments to get a fleet of drones.

Is nothing sacred? YouTube is cracking down on ad blockers. If you have one enabled in your browser, YouTube might skip straight to the end of the video you’re attempting to watch, play it without audio or just refuse to load the video altogether. The only fix? Disable your ad blocker for YouTube or pay $13.99 for YouTube Premium. Ugh.

Don’t buy this now: Google’s just announced six new Chromebooks, including their AI-enabled Chromebook Plus line. With a Chromebook Plus laptop, you’ll get AI wallpapers, an AI text and photo editor, and Google’s Gemini AI assistant built in for as low as $429. Not bad, but I wouldn’t shell out for a first-gen AI laptop. They’ll only get better.

You threw away the paper manual: No prob! This site has over 8 million manuals for everything from electronics to appliances. Score.

🖨️ Print-happy warning: When you print a doc at FedEx, Staples or UPS, check the fine print. Their policies say they can use whatever you print for advertising or share it with unnamed third parties. No, thanks.

British Siri, anyone? Yep, you can change your phone assistant’s voice. On iPhone, go to Settings > Siri & Search > Siri Voice. On most Android phones that use Google Assistant, just say, "Hey, Google, open Assistant settings." Go to All settings > Assistant voice and choose one.

⛽ Tap and go: Use your phone’s electronic wallet app at the gas pump. All you have to do is tap your phone on the reader to pay. This way, you won’t have to worry about card skimmers at the pump stealing from you.

Overwhelmed? AI can help: Here’s a smart prompt for ChatGPT, Gemini or your fave chatbot. “I want to [fill in the blank], but I don’t know where to start. Can you help me by breaking it down into more manageable tasks?” Should’ve tried this before I decided to sort my entire closet. Argh.

Battery has only been charged. It's Salt doing thyme.

The answer: D.) 95% of today’s flights are on autopilot. Takeoff is always manually completed by a human pilot, and most landings are, too. And no, pilots aren’t playing Candy Crush while a robot flies the plane. They’re engaged in navigation, air traffic and systems monitoring.

🛬 I think I told you this story before … I was on a Southwest Airlines flight years ago. After a very hard landing, the flight attendant said over the intercom, “That was quite a bump right there, and I know what y’all are thinking. I’m here to tell you it wasn’t the airline’s fault or the pilot’s fault — it was the asphalt.” Everyone laughed!

Thanks for being here, friend. If you haven’t followed me on YouTube, get on it. I’m streaming live today at 11:30 a.m. Pacific (2:30 p.m. Eastern). Can’t make it? No prob. Hit that link and check out all my past streams on your schedule. I’ll see you back here tomorrow with the best tech newsletter in the USA! — Kim