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February 27, 2025

💸 Avast sold your data: If you bought the antivirus software between Aug. 2014 and Jan. 2020, you might be entitled to a cut of a $16.5 million settlement. Watch your inbox for a claim ID, then fill out the settlement claim form by June 5. I use this antivirus.*

Peter Pan always flies because he never lands: A former Disney engineer thought he was downloading an AI image generator. It was malware. Hackers stole his personal info and Disney data, then dumped it all online. That’s not even what got him fired. He was watching porn on his work computer. Dummy.

💻 Hey, students and coding nerds: Google’s Gemini Code Assistant is now free for everyone. It fixes mistakes, explains errors and recommends code changes.

Deep dive: OpenAI’s Deep research is ready to go for Plus, Team, Enterprise and Edu subscribers. You’ll get 10 deep research queries per month that pulled detailed info from multiple sources. Try it: Select Deep research in the Composer.

📦 Not bad for a side hustle: A California mom bought a few Amazon return pallets, listed the items on eBay and made $10,000 in the first month. Now, she runs a multimillion-dollar e-commerce business. Love American success stories like this. Do you have one? Let me know here.

Alexa really is getting smarter: Amazon rolled out the new Alexa+. You’ll be able to search Ring footage and upload docs, like your kid’s soccer schedule. Alexa will put the dates on your cal and snacks on the shopping list. Cost? Free with Prime or $20 a month without.

🦈 POV: You just got eaten by a shark. Divers off the coast of Freeport, Bahamas, were feeding tiger sharks when one took a huge bite out of a 360-degree camera. You can see the camera filming inside the shark’s mouth and capturing divers from its belly. Wild.

I spent a day on the Dark Web [Part 1]

Kim Komando

When I say Dark Web, what comes to mind? A hacker in a hoodie? Digital drug deals and hitmen for hire? Usually what our imagination cooks up is a lot more dramatic than reality. But when it comes to the Dark Web, not so much.

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POV: You just got eaten by a shark

Divers off the coast of Freeport, Bahamas, were feeding tiger sharks when one took a huge bite out of a 360-degree camera. You can see the camera filming inside the shark’s mouth and capturing divers from its belly. Wild.

Kim Kardashian’s Instagram mistake: No, she didn’t post an unedited pic. Instead, she posted about Texas death row inmate Ivan Cantu, who was convicted of murdering two people and executed around this time last year. Turns out the picture she posted was a different guy, same name, who is very much alive and now suing for slander and libel. Talk about a false bottom.

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For non-dairy milk in your coffee at Dunkin. Starting March 5, swapping almond or oat milk comes at no extra charge. In queso missed it, about a year ago, they paid out a class-action lawsuit for discriminating against lactose-intolerant customers. No whey!

400 million

Weekly active ChatGPT users. Whoa. That’s double their numbers last August and more than Reddit. The AI train has left the station, folks.

Smart Alexa: Might be coming soon to an Echo near you. Today, Amazon is dropping all the details on the next version of Alexa that can actually hold a conversation (not holding my breath). No livestream, but I’ll share all the intel here Thursday. I bet there’s a pay version.

NASA’s new mission to deal with space junk is Apollo G: Over 11,000 satellites orbit Earth. When they crash into each other, it creates junk. (We’re talking 40K pieces of debris in low orbit.) The fix: ELROI (Extremely Low Resource Optical Identifier). In you and me terms, it’s a solar powered, stamp-sized device that’s a license plate for space identification and communication.

It’s all your fault: That’s what online homework helper Chegg has to say about Google. They’re suing, claiming AI answers at the top of search results killed their business. Revenue is down 24%, and they’re scrambling to right the ship. My motto: Innovate or you’ll evaporate.

RIP SMS 2FA: Translation if you’re totally confused: Google is ditching text message (SMS) two-factor authentication (2FA) for something more secure. Now you’ll scan a QR code. Why the change? It’s way too easy for scammers to intercept texts and hack accounts.

🇨🇳 Communist China’s at it again: Now, China’s sending hackers after Microsoft 365 accounts, mostly in the financial services and insurance biz. Their method of choice is password spraying, aka attempting to log in to accounts with all the most common, weakest passwords. This is your friendly reminder to use a complex password for every single account.