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🛠️ Big Tech reset

Plus: Fake Black Friday sites, oil-pulling trend, video resumes are hot
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November 16, 2024

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In partnership with Incogni

Hey, hi, hello, it’s Saturday, friend! Got 60 seconds? Let’s boost your Wi‑Fi. The secret is your router placement. Move it closer to where you binge, work or game. Routers love the high life, so give yours a VIP spot on a shelf or wall mount. The higher it is, the better the signal spreads throughout your space. Got antennas? Don’t point them in the same direction; angle one vertically and one horizontally to cover both floors and walls. Boom, a better signal and no buffering — just bliss. You’re welcome! 😉

Your info is for sale everywhere. Between data brokers, advertisers, stalkers and scammers, everything from your address to your Social Security number is floating around the web for anyone willing to pay. I used Incogni to remove it all for me. More on that below. — Kim

📹 The Kim Komando Show video podcast: AI is making your insurance claim decisions and you’re not going to like it

🎧 The Kim Komando Show podcast: Listen to my award-winning show on your favorite app

⏱️ Daily Tech Update: Uber with guns

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{%- assign shareHeadline = “Need a reset?” -%} {%- assign shareIntro = “Every now and then, your social media feeds need a cleanup. Tech expert Kim Komando shared the steps. Want more tech know-how? Join 550,000 and sign up for Kim’s free newsletter at GetKim.com.%0D%0A%0D%0A” -%}

TODAY’S TECH HACK

Need a reset?

Still stuck in election season on your social media feed? Or maybe you bought one bottle of perfume and now Big Tech thinks you’re launching a beauty empire. Algorithms are smart, but they don’t know when you’re ready to get back to your regularly scheduled programming, like cat videos and memes. Here’s how to reset your feed and take control of what you see.

Start with Facebook

Goodbye, annoying ads. It only takes a minute to kick out the things you no longer want to see.

🛠️ The fix: Filter your advertising topics by going to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Account Center > Ad Preferences > Customize ads.

Now, on to YouTube

Say your family is staying with you for the holidays and your niece is watching cartoons on your YouTube account all day long. Now that’s all YouTube recommends. Delete your search history to get things back to normal.

🛠️ The fix: On the YouTube app, tap You to bring up your History. Tap the cog icon > Settings > Manage All History. At the bottom, you’ll see DELETE with a blue down arrow. Tap from the dropdown menu to delete videos from today, a custom range or all time. Click X to remove items individually, if you prefer.

Going forward, turn off your viewing history any time you don’t want those vids in your algorithm. You can set your video and search histories to autodelete, too. Now your YouTube is back to how you like it, with my video podcast at the very top. You’ll love it!

TikTok tracks your habits

TikTok’s algorithm is built to keep you on the app. Every time you like, follow or comment on something, it tells the algorithm you’re interested in a video, and more videos like it will pop up on your For You page. Disliking a video or writing a nasty comment doesn’t matter, by the way; you still kept watching.

🛠️ The fix: Reset your feed. Open your Profile in the bottom right corner then press the three lines at the top right > Settings and Privacy > Content Preferences > Refresh Your For You Feed > Continue.

Fine-tune Instagram

Watch Instagram Reels instead? There’s no way to reset them, but you can nudge the algorithm in the right direction.

🛠️ The fix: Tap the three dots in the upper right corner. From here, you can adjust:

  • Posts: Select Hide to move them to the bottom of your feed.
  • Stories: Tap Mute so you’ll no longer see them.
  • Accounts: Choose either Restrict, which limits if an account can interact with you, or Block.

Most apps have this option

On just about every social platform, you can hide or see less of certain things. The more you take this action, the more you steer the algorithm.

🛠️ The fix: Next to a post, video or anything else, look for the three-dot or three-line menu that opens more options. On YouTube, for example, tap the three dots next to a video and choose Don’t recommend channel or Not interested.

✅ Feeling inspired to clean more of your digital traces? Wipe your browser history while you’re at it. Here’s how.

Final piece of advice

Both who you follow and who follows you influence what you see on social media. Resetting your algorithm works, but everything you view, like, comment on or share is tracked. Keep that in mind before your next scroll session.

🤣🐊 What do you call a large reptile who likes to stir up petty fights on social media? An Insta‑gater.

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IN PARTNERSHIP WITH  

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You have the power to stop spam texts

Here’s a number that’ll make you roll your eyes: Spammers are estimated to send out over 150% more texts year over year. We’re talking millions of junk texts sent every day. Curious where they get your info to begin with?

Your info can trade hands for less than the price of a cup of coffee. Data brokers and people search sites hawk it to anyone willing to pay. And yes, it’s all legal as long they give you a way to opt out.

Here’s the trick: They make the opt-out process as difficult as possible and change it up just when folks figure it out. My pro tip: Try Incogni. Create an account, then they scrub your personal info from the web. Goodbye, spam texts and calls.

Remove your data from hundreds of scummy sites automatically. →

Please support our sponsors!

WEB WATERCOOLER

🚨 Be smart; don’t put anything in your cart: A Chinese fraud network is using thousands of fake online stores to steal credit cards. They’re impersonating brands like The North Face, Ikea and Wayfair with (fake) massive discounts. Red flags? Many sites have “blackfriday” in the domain name and end with .shop, .store, .vip or .top.

Future of hiring: Gen Z is ditching traditional resumes and recording videos on TikTok to land jobs. Take Nicole, who applied for a Barstool Sports internship with a video resume and racked up over 657,000 views. No word on how many recruiters saw it, but it sure beats having a resume get buried in an inbox or automatically trashed by an AI bot.

🌪️ Quit your witchin’: Amazon Prime members can score free tickets to a showing of “Wicked” on Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. at select theaters. Hurry, it’s first-come, first-served. The musical hits theaters on Nov. 22. FYI: Amazon is dropping new “Wicked”-themed merch every Wednesday. This week’s cute hair dryer is 15% off, and the kiddos will love it for sure.

Not your dentist’s advice: TikTok’s latest stupid viral trend, oil-pulling, has people swishing cooking oil around their mouths for five to 20 minutes. Why? To whiten teeth and prevent gum disease. There’s some evidence it improves gum health, but it’s nowhere near as effective as mouthwash or, ya know, brushing your teeth.

Sponsored: You’re 30 seconds away from peace of mind: PDS Debt is an A+ BBB company I checked out before they became a sponsor. They’ll do a free debt analysis to help you make a plan to pay down your credit cards, personal loans, collections or medical bills. Go to PDSDebt.com/kim* while you’re thinking about it.

Really like a livestreamer? On the YouTube app, you’ll soon be able to buy “jewels” for your favorite creators. Think of jewels as a virtual tip for the person making the videos you love. As far as tips go, the one profession that should get them is teaching: “Thanks, and here’s $25 for teaching my bratty kid algebra.”

I had a joke, but someone stole it: I thought this was interesting. Radio-emitting threads could replace metal tags to stop shoplifters. A company called Myruns is behind the tech. The threads are five times thinner than a single human hair. Special ink inside the threads would transmit signals to set off alarms.

🎖️ He’s not that into you: Officer Kagan Dunlap says his wife constantly gets messages accusing him of cheating on her. The good-looking Marine isn’t unfaithful. Romance scammers have been using his photos since 2015 to woo women around the world, and some victims have lost thousands of dollars to their tricks. Pro tip: Do a reverse image search on anyone who claims to “love” you but you haven’t seen them IRL.

👽 “We are not alone”: So say some former government and military officials, who testified to Congress about UFOs this week. One Navy rear admiral says he saw a video of a flying object that was more advanced than anything in our military. The Pentagon insists there’s no proof UFOs are alien spacecraft. In the words of Robin Williams, “If aliens are watching us, they probably think dogs are in charge and we’re their pets. They’re like, ‘Why else would humans pick up their poop?’”

DEALS OF THE DAY

Traveling is hard enough

✈️ These stress savers are worth it and make great gifts for the travel lover in your life, too.

  • Stop letting your loved ones touch the icky airplane seat pockets. A seat-back organizer ($30) rocks.
  • A $12 travel cup holder frees up your hands for when you’re late and running through the airport … because a preflight Starbucks run is non-negotiable.
  • Don’t use those gross airline-provided headphones. A wireless audio transmitter ($55) connects to any Bluetooth headphones.
  • Twist this travel pillow ($22) to whatever shape you need to get comfy on road trips and long-haul flights.
  • Airplane foot hammocks are going viral online, and I get it. Attach it to the tray table and never lose feeling in your legs again — for under 20 bucks!

TECH LIFE UPGRADES

Windows 11 smarts: “Quick settings” lets you control Airplane mode, Wi‑Fi, Bluetooth, Battery-saver mode and lots more, all in one place. To open it, left-click on the taskbar where the speaker icon is. To edit what you see, click the pencil icon. Unpin anything you don’t use. Easy‑peasy.

Ctrl + Alt + Del: Windows people know that’s how you force-quit apps, and it’s just as easy on a Mac. Press and hold Cmd + Q to close the app that’s not responding. Another method: Right-click on the app’s icon and choose Quit from the dropdown menu. Bye-bye, spinning wheel of death.

Deals without tracking: Download your grocery store’s app for the best possible prices. No one says you have to use your real email address and phone number if you’re not into the data collection. Make a burner account!

For you, Android pals: Files by Google is seriously underrated. It’s an easy way to view all your images, videos, apps and other files and clear out the junk quickly. Try this: Tap the three-dot menu > Clean. Here, you can delete duplicates, old screenshots, blurry pics and large files with just a click.

I don’t like passwords: I know you don’t, either. That’s why I went looking for an option to take care of all the hard work. I negotiated a great deal on NordPass just for you — 58% off!* Good news: It can import your passwords from your current password manager in a few clicks.

WHAT THE TECH?

What the tech?

Be an expert scam-spotter! Hackers like to sneak in characters that look just like the ones your eyes expect to see.

UNTIL NEXT TIME …

I’m not trying to brag: But Linda in Milwaukee asked me how my skin looks so good. Linda, you’re a peach. I’ve taken collagen for years for better nails, skin and hair. It’s great for your joints and recovery, too. Hit this link if you want to try it.*

😂 The cover on my ironing board was wrinkled. I laughed at the irony, then I laughed again because of “irony.”

Big thanks to Incogni for making all this tech goodness free to you. If you’re ready to scrub your info off those sketchy data-broker and people-search sites, use my link to save 60%. Trust me, it’s a game-changer. Catch you tomorrow with the best tech newsletter in the USA! — Kim

We may receive a commission when you buy through our links, but our reporting and recommendations are always independent and objective.