The broken promise of 'ad-free' TV

📝 Keeping up with the Kontracts: Kim Kardashian’s 8-year-old son, Saint, is starting his own YouTube channel, but only after signing a contract. Some of the terms? No recording while big sister North is making music, show Mom all videos before posting, and Mom can delete the account or make it private if he breaks the rules. Love the idea? I’ve got my own Kids’ Tech Contract you can use with a little one in your life.

Got a price break on a medical bill. How? Picking up the phone. You may assume it’s not worth the time, but new research shows disputing an error or simply asking for reduced pricing goes a long way. My advice: Be polite and firm.

Forced advertising: Soon, you’ll see ads on Snapchat next to messages from your friends. Sponsored snaps will show as unread messages in the main chat tab, but they won’t trigger push notifications, at least. Snap’s stock price is hovering near an all-time low. This is def not a coincidence.

🧒🏼 Thank goodness for drones: A 3-year-old boy went missing in a 100-acre cornfield in Wisconsin. As night fell, deputies turned to a thermal imaging drone to spot the toddler’s body heat. The drone found him about half a mile from home. The reason for his adventure? He was chasing a cat.

Chinese health warning: Shein and Temu are under investigation for selling deadly products meant for babies and toddlers. The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission says both retailers “raise specific concerns” about quality control. This is your warning: Do not buy any baby clothes or toys from these retailers.

Have been targeted by a financial deepfake scam. Even worse, 43% fell for it. These scams use bogus images, videos or audio recordings to convince people to buy gift cards, wire money or otherwise spend. If you get a random financial request at work, reach out to the person directly to confirm.

🚨 Alexa wants you to vote a certain way: When asked why you should vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, Amazon Alexa said, “I cannot provide content that promotes a specific political party or a specific candidate.” But for Kamala Harris, it returned a list of answers, including, “[S]he is a female of color with a comprehensive plan to address racial injustice and inequality throughout the country.” Amazon says it was a glitch and they’ve since fixed it. Makes you wonder where else Big Tech is spewing their employees’ opinions.

💵 Wads up? Social media is buzzing about a clever Chase bank “glitch” that gets you free money. How it works: Deposit a fake check into an ATM and withdraw cash before it bounces. Chase is onto it, and the dummies who tried it now face negative account balances in the tens of thousands.

I keep pressing the spacebar, but I’m still on Earth: NASA’s new solar-sailing spacecraft has successfully spread its wings above Earth. Just like the wind pushes a sailboat, this spacecraft uses energy from the sun to propel itself through space. In the coming weeks, engineers will test its maneuvering capabilities. The goal? Low-cost travel options that could help us reach more destinations across the solar system.

Before age 2, according to a new recommendation by Swedish health authorities. They say kids ages 2 to 5 should have no more than an hour a day of screen time, and it rises to two hours for those ages 6 to 12 and three hours for teens ages 13 to 18. This quote from researchers stopped me in my tracks: “Children’s health is paying the price for tech companies’ profits.”