Taylor Swift's deepfake fiasco

February 2, 2024

Found a deepfake of yourself online? Here’s your game plan if it happens to you.

⛔ It worked for Netflix: Starting March 14, no more password sharing on Hulu, Disney+ or ESPN+. Disney is banning using someone else’s account — aka “borrowing.” Mickey needs the money.

Scammers always find a way in

Bluetooth uses a radio frequency to share data over a short distance. It’s baked into just about every smartphone you can buy nowadays. But, as with any connection, it has its vulnerabilities.

My advice: Turn off Bluetooth when not using it. Keeping it active all the time makes your device more vulnerable. Plus, you’ll get more battery life.

On iPhone, go to Settings > Bluetooth and switch it off.
On Android, go to Settings > Connected Devices > Connection Preferences > Bluetooth and switch it off. (Note: Steps vary based on your phone model.)

⚠️ You’d be surprised what someone can do if they break into your phone via Bluetooth.

24% - Reduced risk of death for hearing aid users

This is for folks who wear them, of course — compared to those who regularly skip putting in their hearing aids. What studies haven’t examined is the why.

A giraffe walks into a bar and orders a bottle of Coors Light. “Long neck?” the bartender asks. “Some say so,” the giraffe replies.

“This is the year that I want to fall in love — 100%.” That’s what actress Sharon Stone said, even after her bad luck with online dating. Lowlights include meeting a felon and a guy with 20,000 heroin injections. If I saw Sharon Stone on Tinder, I’d def think it was fake.

🎨 Feel like Bob Ross: Thanks to the Imagen 2 engine, Google’s Bard chatbot now does AI art. It’s free to use, and Google is adding watermarks to avoid AI image drama (ahem, Taylor Swift pics).

Nothing to see here: The Consumer Product Safety Commission is about to tag Amazon as a “distributor,” making it accountable for all those third-party products. Amazon has played the “just-a-middleman” card all these years. The new label could mean lawsuits and recall headaches for Bezos and Co.

I was glad to see this: eBay is paying a $59 million settlement after the U.S. Department of Justice proved pill press machines were being sold on the site. Yep, those devices can make fake, maybe fentanyl-laced, pills. How eBay could let this crap be sold in the first place is beyond me. Shame on them.

Malware mystery: Hackers are planting malware on USB drives and using trustworthy sites like GitHub, Vimeo and Ars Technica to activate it. The “how” is still a mystery, but be safe and don’t share USB drives. If you get one in the mail or find one on the street, throw it away.

Getting pricey: Arlo is bumping its Secure subscription plan pricing from $4.99 to $7.99 monthly (after already increasing it from $2.99). FYI, existing users can lock in the old rate for a year. If you’re looking to switch, I recommend SimpliSafe.