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Gen Z doesn't know what cash is
Hand Gen Z a $20 bill, and watch the confusion unfold. Turns out handling cash is harder when you’ve only known credit cards and Venmo.
Retailers have so many ways to track you – Here’s how to fight back
If you have a pulse and an internet connection, companies want all the details they can get about what you’re willing to buy. Now that your holiday shopping is done, it’s time to take back control.
There’s a bit of work you can do and then to reclaim your privacy, but if you’re looking for a longer-term solution, I’ll share my secret weapon in the fight against tracking.
“The biggest influencer scam of all time”: That’s what YouTuber MegaLad calls the coupon browser extension Honey, which PayPal bought for $4 billion in 2020. He says they’ve been deceiving shoppers and influencers for years by ignoring coupon options and hijacking links through sneaky pop-ups. Watch the vid here. While I’m researching to see if this is true, I uninstalled Honey and you should, too. I’ll let you know what I find out.
“The biggest influencer scam of all time"
That’s what YouTuber MegaLad calls the coupon browser extension Honey, which PayPal bought for $4 billion in 2020. He says they’ve been deceiving shoppers and influencers for years by ignoring coupon options and hijacking links through sneaky pop-ups. While I am researching to see if this is true, I uninstalled Honey and you should, too. I’ll let you know what I find out.
20 years ago
Yelp launched. Over 300 million reviews later, it’s still one of the first places most of us go to check out a restaurant or bar. They just rolled out an AI assistant that gives recommendations and weeds out phony reviews. A restaurant owner offered me a free calamari appetizer if I gave him a good review on Yelp. It was squid pro quo. (I saw you smile!)
⚰️ “Obituary pirating”: If you look up someone in your life who recently passed, you just might see random YouTube videos of someone reading their obituary. Video creators are doing it to make a few ad bucks. Aren’t you glad to be ahead of the rest? I told you about this a year ago, and now the mainstream media’s picking it up.
The opposite of artificial intelligence is natural stupidity: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman just teased new ChatGPT features coming in 2025, including family accounts, improved voice mode and a “grown-up” version without the content guardrails. That last one frightens me; there’s already a problem with AI-generated child porn.
🗣️ “Hey, Alexa”: The voice of Amazon’s smart assistant doesn’t belong to actress Kristen DiMercurio, and she wants to make sure others know it. She’s heard on over 8,000 projects and is often mistaken for Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. Her TikTok video about the mix-up (and the real Big Tech voices) has racked up nearly 28 million views. She’s got skills.
Life Skills 101: Gen Zers grew up with apps and cards, not cash. That’s why you might have trouble paying for items if you get a 20-something cashier. More often than not, they think bills are counterfeit. Know someone born between 1997 and 2012? Tell them no one really counterfeits $5, $10, $20 or $50 bills — only $100s! Meanwhile, a new study proves handing over cash gives you a “sting” you don’t feel with an app. Want to keep your spending in check? Use cash. No wonder Gen Z is so in debt.
🙃 Smile for the bot: A new AI tool calculates your biological age by looking at your face. Created by cancer doc Raymond Mak, FaceAge spots signs of aging by analyzing wrinkles and skin texture. Mak’s team says it’s even better than doctors at predicting your life expectancy. Your next annual exam might include a photo opp. I wonder how it deals with Botox.
Ever wonder who’s behind scam rings? The Wall Street Journal just published a great story about a giant pig-butchering scam operation (paywall link) in the Philippines run by the former mayor of a town 60 miles north of Manila. Alice Guo had thousands of workers scamming people, including Americans. She swindled millions from mostly retirees to pay for fancy cars, designer goods and a helicopter. Now, the 34-year-old is facing human trafficking and corruption charges. I hope she rots in jail.