🧑💻 Online shopping scam: A dad thought he scored a 20TB hard drive for $51 (these are normally around $300) from a flaky site called “Chicntech.” Spoiler: It didn’t work. His son cracked it open and found glued-in metal weights and a chip faking the storage size.
This is worse than spam calls
ChatGPT
Most people have never heard of companies like Mobilewalla or Gravy Analytics, but they know you.
The FTC just clamped down on these two for secretly vacuuming up people’s real-time location data without consent. Not just estimated neighborhoods or passing GPS flickers.
We’re talking exact coordinates, tied to your phone’s unique ID, showing where you went, when you were there, how long you stayed and where you headed to next. Basically your entire Tuesday, sold for $0.03.
Worse, they weren’t just tracking your shopping trips or traffic routes. They were building detailed profiles based on deeply personal locations, including:
🏥 Hospitals and clinics
Cancer centers. Fertility clinics. Mental health facilities. Addiction recovery programs. This isn’t just data. It’s your health privacy being packaged and sold to who knows who.
🕍 Places of worship
Yes, they tracked churches, synagogues, mosques and temples. Your religious beliefs became part of a marketable dataset whether you knew it or not.
🎖️ Military bases
Tracking phones at military installations is a national security issue. That didn’t stop these brokers.
🗳 Protests and political gatherings
Presidential rallies. Pro-Israel. Anti-Israel. Black Lives Matter. Women’s marches. Your right to assemble turned into a precise data point for targeted ads or worse.
Bin stores let you hit the jackpot
I hit up a bin store the other day. It’s where returned and overstock items find a second chance. I spotted a sealed 2-by-2-foot mystery box for 10 bucks. Naturally, I had to buy it. What was inside?
Four pairs of men’s black socks, a cat bell, two potato peelers, an iPhone stand and a women’s tee that said, “Cowboys in my veins. Jesus in my heart.”
Major AI breakthrough — May 17th, Hour 4
Google’s DeepMind and Project Zero built an AI that found a security flaw faster than any human. Wild. Plus, planning a shopping trip? The weather could impact your store discount. I also talk to the teens who made $1 million selling junk on Facebook.
514% jump
Taobao downloads spiked this month. The Chinese shopping app is now the No. 2 free iPhone app, behind DHgate at No. 1. Folks are buying directly from China after watching TikToks of luxury items being relabeled and marked up. Now for $12.99, you too can own a “Gucchi” belt with radiation.
Lock down your device security: If you’re still browsing, shopping and working online without antivirus software, you’re making a mistake. My trusted pick is $19 for the first year.
🤳 Am I hot or not? That’s what people are asking ChatGPT. They upload photos, ask for an honest opinion, then get glow-up advice (think skin care routines or makeup tips). Kinda sketchy now that ChatGPT has a shopping feature that recommends products. AI meets e-commerce. Its advice could be influenced by ads, not what’s actually best for you.
🔍 Google I/O announcements: I wasn’t overly impressed. Search is getting an AI Mode tab so you can use Gemini to browse the web. Why? Google Meet will add real-time speech translation. Finally. Gmail will dig through your inbox to suggest replies that sound more like you. Helpful, maybe. And for shopping? Upload a full-length photo and virtually try on outfits. And Google gets more data points on you to sell.
eBay’s new shopping friend: eBay’s new AI shopping “companion” wants to spiritually replace the friend who knew your vibe and your 3 a.m. niche obsessions. Its new generative AI guide is designed to guide you through the digital thrift store with next-generation ease. It’s slowly being rolled out to U.S. customers near the search bar.
3 easy tech tips for grocery shopping
Not a fan of the grocery run? Use these quick tech tricks to stay organized, save money, and skip the hassle.
💸 Fake it till you fund it: A tech founder got charged with fraud after lying about his shopping app, Nate, using AI for universal checkouts. Turns out it was actually human contractors from the Philippines and Romania behind the scenes (plus a few bots). He still raised over $40 million from investors before getting caught.
These new budget phones are worth it
Tight budget? You can still get a fast, feature-packed phone. Here’s a few to put on your shopping list.
Lock down your device security: If you’re still browsing, shopping and working online without antivirus software, you’re making a mistake. My trusted pick is $19 for the first year.
🛍️ Buy Now, Pay Later is now Buy Now, Regret Publicly: The WSJ (paywalled) says credit bureaus have officially started tracking your “Buy Now, Pay Later” shopping. So yes, that $89 “ergonomic” beanbag you split into four payments? It might now haunt your credit report. Suddenly, Klarna feels a lot less like a fun hack and more like a fiscal breadcrumb trail leading directly to your FICO score.
Enter the robo-bagger
Going grocery shopping? Don’t be surprised if soon a little robot packs all your stuff — not the bagger.
Lock down your device security: If you’re still browsing, shopping and working online without antivirus software, you’re making a mistake. My trusted pick is $19 for the first year.
Do you bank on your phone? What about checking email and shopping? If you said “yes” to any of those, you’re a target. A keylogger captures everything you type, including your account numbers and passwords. Encrypt your keystrokes with EndpointLock. Hit this link for 10% off.
Alexa alerts you when your Whole Foods order is ready: Just open your Alexa app > More (three lines at the bottom) > Settings > Notifications > Amazon Shopping and toggle it on. When you get notified, just say, “Alexa, check into Whole Foods,” so they know you’re on your way.
Google Shopping changes: Vision Match lets you create what you can’t find — just enter a prompt like “colorful dress with daisies,” and AI will match it to real items. Virtual try-on now works for skirts and pants, and the See this look on you lets you try on beauty products with AR tech.
🔍 Google’s testing AI-only search results: The new AI Mode ditches the usual 10 blue links and instead lets Gemini 2.0 take over with web summaries, graphs and shopping data. Think of it as a bigger version of AI Overview, and yes, we all know how spot-on that is. It’s opt-in only for now through Google’s Search Labs, so you can ignore it … for now.