💲 If you put a Ring on it: Ring’s raised its Basic video doorbell subscription costs from $3.99 to $4.99 a month. Always something, huh? More than ever, getting SimpliSafe to protect your whole home is a smarter and cheaper choice.
Your data: It’s all posted online - But there's a simple way to remove it
© Sitthiphong Thadakun | Dreamstime.com
A loyal reader, Racquel, emailed me recently after dealing with a very angry customer at work. “Last week, she left me a voicemail and said that I was behind all her problems and she was ‘going to find’ where I lived.”
Scary, right? Even if you’re safe with what you do online, there’s so much public info about us floating around the web. And the worst part is that your personal info is out there for others to snap up completely free.
Racquel had heard me talk about Incogni, a service that removes your personal info from all the sites that exist solely to gather and share your info for their profit. “[Incogni] went to work right away. It’s going to be difficult for her to find my address,” she told me.
I want you to have that safety and protection, too. Let’s take a deeper look at who’s making money by giving away or selling your data online and what can happen to you when they do.
Data-hungry data brokers
Data brokers exist only to collect and sell your personal information, often without your consent. They gather data from public records, your online activities, retail sites and anything else they can find. This can expose you to:
- Profiling: These detailed profiles about you are sold to marketers, advertisers, and even employers or insurance companies.
- Identity theft: With enough information, bad actors can access your financial accounts or create new ones in your name.
- Spam and scams: Your contact info can be sold to telemarketers and scammers. That’s why you get spam calls, emails and text messages at all hours, day or night.
- Loss of privacy: All this data from various sources can paint a very detailed picture of your life. Just knowing it’s out there makes me queasy.
😡 Look, I tried to get myself out of the data brokers’ sites but gave up after three months. It was too frustrating and time-consuming. I decided to try Incogni after seeing an ad about the service, and I was very, very skeptical. I’m not sure how they do it, but Incogni got me out of these data-scraping sites.
Money-hungry people search websites
People-search websites aggregate information from public records such as court documents, voter registrations and property records, along with social media and other online sources. In the wrong hands, this can open you up to:
- Doxxing: That’s when bad guys publish your private info online (like your home address) to purposely make you vulnerable to threats across the web or in your home.
- Stalking and harassment: You don’t have to get doxxed for someone to use your personal info to track your whereabouts or target you for harassment. Stalking can start small, but it’s a nightmare that can last for years.
- Social engineering: Criminals use detailed information to target you with creepy, highly personalized scams that are harder to detect and resist. Think an old high school friend “reconnecting” out of the blue.
- Reputation damage: Outdated or incorrect information, like an arrest record, on people-search websites can drag your name through the mud and cost you opportunities.
Yup, I tried to get my name out of people-search sites. Like a bad rash, a new site pops up at every turn. I never thought it was possible, but Incogni got me out of these sites and put me on suppression lists so these garbage sites can’t put me back in.
How to find and stop hidden fees
When I’m booking air travel, it seems like the price goes up with every click. By the time I pay to check a bag or two, that “great deal” isn’t looking so, well, great.
So of course airlines are fighting the Biden administration’s “junk fees’” rule, which would make them show their fees upfront for checking bags, carrying on a bag, and changing or canceling a reservation.
📮 Stick with me, and we’ll go places: The prices for U.S. first-class postage stamps are going up to $0.73 in July, and lots of fake postage stamp sites and social media ads are popping up. PSA: There’s no such thing as half-price stamps. It’s a scam.
Allowing specific calls while on Do Not Disturb
Do Not Disturb keeps calls and texts from bugging you, but what if there’s a person or two you want to get through any time? Here’s how to flag important contacts and silence the rest.
Someone leaked a shot from the new Captain America movie and Marvel is ticked — they’ve filed a subpoena to get the poster’s identity. Which platform are they going after? Is it … A.) Facebook, B.) Reddit, C.) TikTok or D.) Instagram?
75% of weddings
In 2024 will be phone-free. Unplugged weddings fix that problem of everyone looking at the ceremony through their cam and ruining expensive professional pics. Smart.
How to set emergency contacts for iPhone
I hope you never need to use them, but everyone should set up emergency contacts. I’ll walk you through the process. It only takes a minute!
Really remote: SpaceX’s Starlink system for cellphones can now handle video calls. A demo shows an employee linking their smartphone to the satellite service and connecting to another phone on a regular cellular network. The image quality is grainy and the clip brief, but it’s still pretty cool. Don’t expect it till later this year.
Just sell it: Nike, Ralph Lauren, Levi’s and Zara are taking over resale sites like Depop and eBay. Easiest to sell? Brown, beige and multicolored outfits and Nike shoes, which are the No. 1 sellers. Check your closets and make some summer travel money now!
It went data way: Soon, you can send files directly from Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive to ChatGPT rather than saving them to your desktop and uploading them to the AI assistant. There’s a new ChatGPT feature to make sweet interactive charts and tables from your spreadsheets. And there goes another job because of AI.
But wait! There’s more: Microsoft Edge will soon use AI to offer real-time video translation on sites like YouTube and CNBC — dubbing and subtitles included. And you can create fancy AI apps that respond to images, voice and text prompts with GPT‑4o in Azure AI Studio. Fancy, fancy.
🤦 Baby, don’t Hertz me: Get a load of this — rental car giant Hertz got caught charging Tesla renters hundreds for gas. They blame a system glitch that added a “Skip the Pump” fee to EV invoices. Refunds are rolling out. Are they sorry? Yup — you get one free EV rental day. I’ll pass.
Another health care data breach: WebTPA provides admin services to health benefit plans and insurance companies. Hackers stole the names, contact details, birth and death dates, Social Security numbers and insurance info of 2.4 million people in April 2023. Yes, it happened over a year ago and we’re just hearing about it now. The company’s CEO basically said, “It’s no big deal.” Yeah, not for you.
40% quieter
A new leaf blower invented by college students. Engineering brainiacs at Johns Hopkins University designed an electric leaf blower that cuts the noise levels nearly in half and practically erases the most obnoxious whirring sounds most leaf blowers emit. Black & Decker will start selling them in the next two years!
🌐 My prediction from two years ago is coming true: Web traffic is dying. On Google Search, Gemini AI is spitting out answers with its AI Overview, meaning no clicks are required. Of course, publishers are making zero money from AI results. If you get any revenue from website searches, it’s time to pivot your strategy, like, yesterday.
Uber’s new shuttle service: Each one will hold between 14 and 55 folks. Schedule shared rides and reserve up to five seats ahead of time in busy areas. Another change: Costco members (who don’t want the $1.50 hot dog deal) ordering through Uber Eats get discounts.
😱 The truth is out: Earlier this year, Raffaela Spone was accused of creating a deepfake video of her daughter’s cheerleading competitor vaping. The community turned on Spone, complete with death threats. Fast-forward — the video turned out to be real and the investigation was botched. Yeah, Spone’s suing for $20 million.
Update your iPhone, too: iOS 17.5 is here and it’s a big one — 1.5GB, to be exact. What’s new? An offline mode for Apple News+ and a notification when an unknown Bluetooth device is traveling with you. And you can finally send your phone in for repairs without having to turn off Find My — nice! Hit Settings > General > Software Update, and tap Download and Install.