Don’t spill the beans on your friends

March 20, 2024

Your phone’s address book has all the juicy details on the people you care about — birthdays, pics, names, email addresses. Newsflash: That’s not your info to share.

Seems harmless, right? What does it matter if you let X or Meta dive into your contacts? Get this: From your address book, companies build “shadow profiles” for people who aren’t on their sites, just based on info they get from their friends who don’t realize how much they’re sharing.

The “what can I do?” is simple:

Don’t give apps access to your phone’s contacts. Review which apps have access and turn it off. You’ll find this in your phone’s settings under App permissions.

🛑 Pay attention, folks. Stop sharing info without a real benefit to you. It’ll make a world of difference for your privacy.

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Just brows(er)ing: The Camelizer for Chrome is a smart way to save money on your next Amazon purchase. When the price drops on something you want to buy, you’ll get an alert.

Nvidia is close to replacing some human nurses with AI, all for a mere $9 an hour. Yep, you read that right. These AI nurses will do things like guide you through colonoscopies, help manage your breast cancer care and, of course, keep your doc in the loop. Check out the video. With the current nursing shortage, this could def take off.

A pristine copy of Super Mario 64, released in 1996, is the most expensive video game ever sold. Did the cartridge sell for … A.) $1.6 million, B.) $1.1 million, C.) $500,659 or D.) $221,812?

Find the answer here →

🗑️ Delete means delete! The trash folder on macOS can be a lifesaver when you delete something accidentally, but what about you when you want it gone for good? Select a sensitive file in Finder, then hold down Option before selecting File and Delete Immediately — it’s gone.

I’m making a list: It’s easy to save places in Google Maps, like that out-of-the-way coffee shop you love. With a pin selected, tap Save. Try making lists for trips or cities, and you can share them with your travel buddies, too.

One woman’s trash is another’s treasure: Don’t shy away from putting older or broken tech on sale on sites like eBay. Plenty of people will take a chance on something they think they can fix or use the parts from, even if you’ve given up on it.

Make it math for you: The Calculator app in Windows isn’t just for normal number crunching — it’s for life! Click the three lines in the top left to see everything else it can do, from converting currencies to calculating the number of days between two dates. You’ll know exactly how long you have until that next work deadline … or your anniversary.

💻 Don’t throw your computer out the Window: Resetting your PC to its factory-fresh state for better performance (without losing your files) is possible! Open Settings, then choose System > Recovery > Reset PC. Just make sure you choose the Keep my files option (you’ve got everything backed up anyway, right?).

Be my guest: Check if your router offers a guest mode. If it does, turn it on. This means visitors can get online but can’t start messing with your smart lights or using your printer — that’s getting too comfortable. And if you’re the one on a guest network or public Wi-Fi, always use a VPN. I recommend ExpressVPN. Use this link to get three free months.

Appointment-watching prep: If an event or show will be streamed live on YouTube, there’s a good chance you can sign up for a notification when it starts. Go to the host’s YouTube channel, find the upcoming livestream, then click Notify Me. And hey, while you’re there, subscribe to my YouTube channel!