📺 RIP Freevee: Amazon’s free streaming service, used by millions, is officially gone. Open the app now, and you’ll be redirected to a site to download Prime Video instead. The silver lining? Some of Freevee’s original shows will still be on Prime, and you won’t need a membership to watch. Cue tiny violin.
Health data, now with ad targeting
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Your smartwatch is great for counting steps and buzzing you when you’ve been sitting on your butt too long. But have you ever stopped to think where all that personal data is going?
From sleep patterns to how stressed you are on a Tuesday afternoon, it’s all being logged in a digital diary. And guess what? That diary is worth big money to advertisers, insurance companies and, of course, hackers.
🗑️ What it collects (spoiler: everything)
- Fitness stuff: Steps, calories, heart rate, workouts
- Health info: Sleep, blood oxygen, cycle tracking, stress
- Behavioral patterns: When you move, how you move
- Location: Where you go, when you go, even when you “go to the gym” but really hit Chipotle
One data point is no big deal, but together? You hand over a complete snapshot of your life.
🤔 Why you should care
- “Anonymized” is not anonymous. They can connect the dots to know who you are.
- Your health data could be used to raise your insurance rates, or worse.
- One breach, and your most personal health info is out in the wild.
- Gain 2 pounds, and it’s all weight loss shakes in your feed.
🔒 Lock it down
1. Pick better apps: Stick to apps with solid privacy policies or ones that store your data on your device instead of the cloud.
✅ Good: CommonHealth, Gadgetbridge, HeartWatch ($9)
🚫 Nope: Talkspace, BetterHelp, MyFitnessPal
2. Turn off unnecessary tracking
- Apple Watch
On iPhone: Settings > Privacy & Security > Analytics & Improvements > turn off Share iPhone & Watch Analytics. - Pixel Watch
On your phone used with your watch: Settings > Google > Manage your Google Account > Data & privacy > turn off Web & App Activity and Location History.
The catfisher in the minivan
Netflix
Alert: This article is a spoiler for Unknown Number: The High School Catfish on Netflix.
Imagine you’re a high school girl. Your phone won’t stop buzzing. It’s not friendly DMs, texts or social media notifications.
$2 million
How much the Las Vegas Sphere makes every single day. Not from concerts but from showing the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz. Between 4,000 and 5,000 fans show up multiple times a day, each paying about $200 a ticket. Execs estimate the film could top $1 billion over its run (paywall link). I guess the real Emerald City is in Vegas. Btw, I saw it. I loved it!
VPNs that spy on you
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Using a VPN? Better make sure it’s not on this list.
VPNs are supposed to keep you safe. They encrypt your internet traffic and hide your location from hackers, ISPs and creepy ad trackers.
⚡ Crypto malware scare: In the biggest supply chain hack in history, hackers hijacked 18 huge npm packages (chalk, debug and others), slipping in code that swapped crypto wallet addresses mid-transaction. Those poisoned packages? Downloaded over a billion times. Developers yanked the infected versions and purged caches in record time. Mischief managed, but it shows how fragile the web’s plumbing really is.
🕳️ The web’s falling apart: Google just told a judge the web’s in “rapid decline.” Advertisers are bailing for streaming and shopping platforms, leaving websites high and dry. Basically, the internet’s breaking up with quirky blogs and small sites for someone hotter, richer and way more into retail. It’s kind of like watching your favorite diner get replaced by a Sweetgreen.
👀 Romance scam face-off: A Florida grandma thought she was chatting up a retired Army general. Nope, just scammers milking her for $60K. Deputies say one guy pocketed $30K and bought a Hyundai Kona. She got to confront him face-to-face. He swears he was “scamming the scammer.” The vehicle of choice for world-class con artists: midrange compact SUV.
📱 Apple’s skinny era: First, no foldables. Apple dropped the iPhone 17 lineup, headlined by the ultra-thin iPhone Air (5.6mm, titanium, 48MP camera). AirPods Pro 3 now translate languages in real time and, get this, track your heart rate mid-squat. New Watches got blood pressure and even sleep apnea detection. Preorders open, shipping Sept. 19.
👂 Struggling to hear? Custom-fit hearing aids with expert guidance and a 45-day risk-free trial help you hear clearly, follow every conversation and reconnect with friends and family, so you never miss a moment again.
📖 Bible goes cinematic: Pray.com is cranking out AI-generated Bible videos (think seven-headed dragons, collapsing cities and angels that look like superheroes). Millions are watching, mostly guys under 30. Theologians say it cheapens Scripture into a “Don’t forget to like and pray!” social media plea, but Pray’s team calls it “the Marvel Universe of faith.”
♣️ Google laid its AI cards on the table: Google quietly dropped limits for Gemini. Free users get five prompts per day, 100 images per month and five long-form deep dives. The Gemini Advanced (Ultra 1.5) plan runs $19.99/month and bumps you up to 500 prompts per day, 1,000 images per month and daily high-powered file analysis using Gemini in Gmail, Docs and more.
New mental illness alert: Just passing this along. Doctors are seeing a rise in “AI delusions,” people breaking down after endless chats with bots that never disagree. Not schizophrenia, but not nothing. Experts warn this could mark a brand-new disorder. Imaginary friends? Now they charge $20/month.
20,000 corporate employees
Were tested to see if cybersecurity training helps them avoid phishing scams. The result? Their failure rate was only 1.7% lower than people with no training at all. Blame the materials or the teaching, but the real fix is auto-detecting software (paywall link). Send this stat to your boss before they book another mandatory workshop.
💰 Zuck’s $250M hire: Meta just signed a 24-year-old AI researcher to a $250 million four-year deal (paywall link). That’s more than Steph Curry makes to play basketball. Oppenheimer, the guy who made the atomic bomb, made about $150K a year in today’s money. This “spend big, forget profits” vibe feels straight out of the dot-com bubble.
Grok and ye shall find (malicious links!): Scammers have figured out how to trick X’s Grok AI into sharing dangerous links by hiding them in places the system overlooks, making those links look “trusted” when they’re anything but. Some posts have racked up millions of views, which means bad actors get a megaphone straight to your feed. PSA: Never click blindly, even if Grok hands you the link on a silver platter.
🎭 Deepfake stole her home: A 66-year-old California woman lost her life savings and home after scammers used AI deepfakes to impersonate soap star Steve Burton. You know the drill, Steve said he was in love and they would be together forever. But he needed money. She sent him $81K, then he pushed her into selling her $350K condo for quick cash. By the time her daughter intervened, the house was long gone.
102
The age of Mount Fuji’s newest oldest summit climber. Kokichi Akuzawa scaled Japan’s 12,388-foot peak with his daughter (70), granddaughter and her husband, despite past heart failure, shingles and even a fall. He’s out there bagging mountains while we’re bargaining with ourselves over taking the stairs. There’s some motivation for you.
$425 million
That’s how much Google owes for ignoring your “do not track” setting. Apparently, when you said “no thanks” to being tracked, Google heard “just a little bit.” The fine’s big, but considering the plaintiffs asked for $31 billion, it’s more of a slap than a shutdown.
🍏 Apple’s iDrop: Tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT, Apple will roll out its new, smarter Siri, along with the ultralight iPhone 17 Air, base iPhone 17, 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max. We’ll also see Apple Watches and smart home gear. Stream it on YouTube or Apple’s site. I’m just hoping the iRon will work with the iWash, iCook and iClean network. (That was so bad, it was so good!)