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📬 Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here. Tomorrow: I’m going tell you the top scams hitting this holiday season.
Happy Friday, {{first_name | friend}}. Holiday music is already sneaking into every store, coffee shop and elevator. You’re standing in an aisle, wondering, “Who sings this version?” So you hold up your phone, and a few seconds later, boom. Song, artist, album. Must be magic, right? Not quite. It’s math. Beautiful, nerdy math.
🎵 How does Shazam name a song so fast? A) A team of music experts listens to your clip, B) It turns the sound into a fingerprint of the loudest notes, C) It transcribes the lyrics or D) It asks Mariah Carey, who just defrosted for the season? Keep reading, the answer is queued up at the end.
🌐 Got a website or been meaning to start one? I moved Komando.com to Hostinger,* and it runs faster than ever. Its AI builder gets a new site up in minutes, no coding needed. Use promo code KIM10 at Hostinger.com/Kim for an extra 10% off! — Kim
TODAY’S DEEP DIVE
A total frame job
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
🤯 WOW! Meta sold more than 7 million pairs of smart glasses last year. Two U.S. senators say pictures from those glasses, including those of people who had no clue they were on camera, may be used to train Meta’s AI. Contract workers overseas reportedly saw footage of people undressed. And Samsung’s new camera glasses hit stores right before Christmas.
The Short Version: You can end up in a stranger’s AI training data without knowing it. Steps to protect yourself below.
📖 Read time: 2 minutes
You’re in line for coffee. The guy behind you wears a slick pair of Ray-Bans. Cute, right?
Except those glasses are also a camera, a microphone and an AI assistant. And you’re in the shot.
Meta sold more than 7 million pairs of smart glasses last year. Sens. Ron Wyden and Ed Markey want the company to answer one question: What happens to the people those glasses see?
Here’s what you need to know.
👓 You never clicked ‘I agree’
Meta’s own fine print says so. When a wearer asks the glasses’ AI about what’s in front of them, that image can be kept and used to train Meta’s AI. Real humans may look at it, too.
Contract workers in Kenya reportedly saw unredacted footage, including people undressed. Meta dropped that contract.
More than 70 people sued, saying workers labeling AI data saw their private photos and videos.
The senators want to know if bystanders can ever get that data deleted.
You didn’t sign anything. You walked into the frame. (Seriously.)
And more cameras are coming. Samsung’s Intelligent Eyewear reportedly hits the U.S. in mid-December. Styles come from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Every model has a camera up front and Google’s Gemini AI built in. No price yet.
It’s Google Glass all over again. Only this time, people are buying them.
🔒 Lock it down
If you’re the one being filmed:
Look for the light. Meta glasses have a small LED on the front that glows when the camera’s recording. Meta says it shuts the camera off if someone tampers with it.
Speak up. “Are those recording?” is a fair question at the doctor’s office, the gym or your kid’s sleepover.
Your house, your rules. Smart glasses stay out of the bathroom. Period.
If you own Meta glasses, flip this switch today. Take the glasses out of the case so they connect. Open the Meta AI app and go to the glasses’ settings > Meta AI (under Experiences). Turn off Store visual data from AI experiences.
FYI, that only covers pictures. Meta still keeps your voice interactions, so delete your old recordings in the app’s settings.
Getting the Samsung pair for Christmas? Dig into the privacy settings before you head out the door. My rule: Assume the camera’s on until someone proves it’s off.
You should respect people who wear glasses. They paid money to see you.
📩 Send this to someone who just put smart glasses on their holiday wish list.
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IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
What happens when someone googles you?
Before someone calls, hires or buys from you, chances are they’re looking you up online. What will they find? If you don’t have a professional website or yours looks outdated, they may never contact you. Think about the customers you could be missing right now!
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Have a business or a great idea you’ve been putting off? Hostinger makes getting online easy and affordable. Early Black Friday pricing is a fraction of what others charge. It’s the best price I’ve seen!
📺 YOUTUBE: THE KIM KOMANDO SHOW
Phone calls at 35,000 feet?
Your seatmate just joined a Zoom meeting. On speaker. For the whole flight to Denver. Is that even allowed? I break down the rules on taking calls in the air, and the etiquette that keeps you off the viral video list.
▶️ Watch on YouTube →
WEB WATERCOOLER
🎓 Big brain energy: Sam Altman says the student has passed the teachers. At a conference in Abu Dhabi, the OpenAI boss claimed AI is smarter than our brightest scientists. His proof? OpenAI points to hundreds of AI-written math papers. Mathematicians say the proofs are hard to read and could take years to check, and one accused the company of leaning on his research. FYI, when a company grades its own homework, wait for the teacher. How much do geniuses weigh? Ein stein!
🎧 Good but obsolete: Don’t you love finding out the gadget that works perfectly fine is headed to an early retirement? The Bluetooth group approved an upgrade for Bluetooth 7.0 that could bring lossless wireless music and faster smartwatch syncing, with audio gear expected in 2027. Cool, except your phone and headphones both need new chips to get the benefits. That’s two purchases to improve the commute soundtrack. I’d keep what works until replacing it actually makes sense. My Bluetooth speaker wasn’t working, so I threw it into the lake. Now it’s syncing.
🔐 Your passwords have a secret life: Billions of email records have been exposed in data breaches, and one reused password can open your bank, email and shopping accounts. That’s why I trust NordPass.* It keeps every login in one secure vault and warns me when a password is weak, reused or exposed. Save 55%. Only $1.34/month + 4 extra months.
🤖 Bots, get off my lawn: Own a website? A one-line fix for AI scraping is coming. OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Anthropic say they’ll honor a single robots.txt signal telling all of their crawlers not to train AI on your content. Anthropic has started, OpenAI says in the coming months, Microsoft targets Feb. 1, 2027, and Google says 2027. They won’t pull anything already used for training. Ask your web person to keep blocks in place. Why did the robot cross the road? It was programmed by the chicken.
👓 Read my lips, literally: Want quieter coworkers? Careful what you wish for. Picture Dave silently mouthing an email over lunch. San Francisco startup Subvocal is taking preorders on AI glasses that turn facial muscle movements into text, claiming 200 words a minute without a peep. Delivery is estimated for March 2027. FYI, the company hasn’t published accuracy numbers. And those facial signals are personal data. Before I strap these on my face, I want to know where my lips’ paperwork ends up. This gadget really mouths off.
⏳ The tour merch disappears Wednesday
Five days. That’s all you’ve got. When this preorder closes, it’s gone for good.
I’m not touring, but I made tour merch anyway. The front is the poster. The back is the full 2026 tour list.
Every rock star needs a hoodie. So does every tech nerd.
End of Year Tour hoodie, $60. Heavyweight, black, the one people will ask you about.
End of Year Tour tee, $35. Soft, garment-dyed, won’t find anywhere else.
End of Year Tour tote, $24. Big enough for the whole tour.
Backstage Crew women’s sweatshirt, $70. Ivory, pastel-striped sleeves, a small KIMKOMANDO on the chest. The crew always gets the soft stuff.
The clock is ticking: Orders close Wednesday, Nov. 11, at 11:59 p.m. PT. We make exactly what’s ordered, not one piece more. Miss it, and you’re watching from the parking lot.
🎄 Orders ship about five weeks after the window closes, so expect delivery around mid-December.
👉 Grab yours before Wednesday’s deadline. No restocks, no reprints, no encore. When the curtain drops, it drops.
🎤 PODCAST: THE CURRENT POWERED BY KIM KOMANDO
Son used AI to reincarnate his deceased father
After his dad died, Brian Dema spent more than $150,000 on AI, handwritten journals and old voicemails to build a lifelike hologram of him. Brian joins me to talk about what it was like to see his father again, and whether it actually helped.
DEVICE ADVICE
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: You want to save a whole webpage, not four separate screenshots. On iPhone, open it in Safari and take a screenshot as usual. Tap the little preview, then Full Page at the top. Hit Done to save the entire page as a photo or PDF. ICYMI, Android’s got this in Chrome. Tap three dots > Share > Long screenshot.
💬 No subtitles? Make your own: Can’t quite catch what someone’s saying on a Zoom call or in a video? Your Mac can put captions on the screen as they speak. Open System Settings > Accessibility > Live Captions. On Windows, go to Settings > Accessibility > Captions > Live captions, or press Win + Ctrl + L. No more rewinding five times to catch a sentence.
👆🏻 Your iPhone has a hidden button: It’s on the back. Open Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap. Choose Double Tap or Triple Tap, then pick an action like Screenshot, Flashlight or Mute. Hands full in a dark parking lot? Two taps and your flashlight’s on. I use this every day. Some Androids have it, too. Try Settings > System > Gestures > Quick Tap.
🍿 Kick the freeloaders off Netflix: Your ex, old roommate and some guy named “Zac’s iPad” might still be using your account. Sign in through a browser and go to Account > Manage access and devices. You’ll see which devices streamed recently and when. Hit Sign Out on anything you don’t recognize, then change your password. Zac can pay for his own Netflix.
💻 Chrome eating all your memory? With 20 tabs open, your laptop’s fan probably sounds like a jet engine. On Mac or Windows, open Chrome > three dots > Settings > Performance and turn on Memory Saver. Tabs you haven’t used in a while go to sleep, freeing up memory until you click them again. Same tabs, less strain. Without closing a single one.
🎞️ One great AI shortcut: Got a night photo that came out blurry and grainy? Don’t delete it yet. Open ChatGPT, tap +, upload it and type /hdreal. It can sharpen the image, clean up grain and add detail. You might have a photo worth framing, though it guesses at missing details, so faces may look off. Great for keepsakes, not evidence.
Be on the show! Weekend to-do list: laundry, groceries and finally ask me that tech question. Check one off right now.
KIM’S DAILY DEALS
As an Amazon Associate, some links pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. Keeps this newsletter free. Thank you.
✈️ Sleigh holiday travel for under $20
Genius fixes for the busiest time of year.
🔋 Never run on empty: Mini power bank (21% off, $32)
4.6 ⭐ 100+ reviews
Dead phone on a long layover? Not on my watch. This pocket-size charger pumps out 45W for quick top-ups. It’s flight-safe with a detachable USB-C cable. One less thing to pack in your carry-on.
LISEN
🧳 Hold ’em together: Gorilla Grip’s adjustable luggage straps (19% off, $13) keep overstuffed suitcases shut. TSA can still open your bag, too.
Pack neat: This waterproof toiletry bag (23% off, $10) is like a mini shelf. Hang it on a hook, so your things stay off the sink and within reach.
💊 Never miss a dose: Sort a full week of vitamins and meds into a pill organizer (10% off, $9). Comes with a faux leather travel bag. Neat.
Wallet bodyguards: RFID-blocking cards ($10, five-pack) shield your credit cards from tap-to-pay skimmers in crowded tourist spots.
💸 Don’t let savings fly by: Shop more of my favorite travel gear before you depart. →
Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication.
WHAT THE TECH?
Image: Microsoft/Xbox
🐊 Game over, alligator
Microsoft has a new Xbox for gamers who think their living room needs more Florida.
The Series X-BITE is a working Xbox Series X inside a 5-foot alligator sculpture, with a glowing Xbox emblem in its stomach and a controller wedged in its mouth.
The special-effects crew behind Jurassic World Dominion built it, so at least the craftsmanship is more realistic than most headlines out of Florida.
There’s only one, and you can enter to win it through Nov. 10. Alligators can live up to 100 years, which is why there’s an increased chance they will see you later.
Check it out here, along with the rules to win. What did the alligator say to the alligator in its way? Please move, I need to get bayou.
Share this now:
LOGGING OUT …
🎓 What you learned today: Strangers’ smart glasses may be feeding your face to AI, Bluetooth 7.0 sets up lossless wireless audio, AI companies agreed on one opt-out for your website and Xbox stuffed a console inside an alligator. Not bad for one email. Fake delivery texts, copycat stores and AI voice clones are hitting phones hard. Tomorrow, I’ll show you the five holiday scams to watch for and the protection that actually pays you back.
The answer: B) It turns the sound into a fingerprint. Shazam converts a few seconds of audio into a map of the loudest peaks, like a constellation of sound, then matches that pattern against its giant library. It works even with chatter and clanking dishes in the background.
Shazam has been used more than 100 billion times. The most-Shazamed song ever? “Dance Monkey.” Pro move:
On iPhone, add the Music Recognition button to Control Center.
On Android, grab the free Shazam app, swipe down twice from the top of your screen, tap the pencil or Edit icon and drag the Shazam tile into your Quick Settings.
No app to open. Tap, listen, done.
One for the road: In what order do you play classical music songs? Bach to Bach.
🚀 Launch it this weekend: A website for your side hustle, your shop or your family recipes? Hostinger* makes it easy, with AI doing the heavy lifting. It’s really amazing. Go to Hostinger.com/Kim and use promo code KIM10 for an extra 10% off!
💛 AI can build a whole world in seconds. Yours still gets built the old-fashioned way, one kind moment at a time. Thanks for being here! — Kim
Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily
🏆 THE KIM CHALLENGE: Forward this to ONE person who needs to hear it today. Pick the person who popped into your head while reading. You know who it is.
Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, LISEN, Microsoft/Xbox
Companies and products denoted by an asterisk (*) within this publication are paid sponsors or advertisements. As an Amazon Associate, the publisher earns from qualifying purchases. Statements regarding products denoted by a double asterisk (**) have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration; such products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This newsletter is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, medical, or professional advice of any kind. Readers should consult with a qualified professional before making any decisions based on this content. The publisher disclaims all liability for any loss, damage, or injury resulting from the use of or reliance on the information contained herein.