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📬 Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here. Tomorrow: Modern cars remember your contacts, track your habits and need updates. I’ll show you what mechanics wish every driver knew before something blinks, beeps or gets expensive.
We made it to Friday, {{first_name | friend}}. We’ve come a long way from whacking your furniture by accident with a Wii remote. Topgolf became the rare place where nachos, golf swings and scoreboard drama live in harmony.
The scene is usually music thumping, balls flying and your brother-in-law claiming his shot landed dead-center for 50 points like he’s Tiger Woods with queso breath. Before his ball stops rolling, the screen in your bay pops up his score, the distance and exactly where it landed. Every shot, every player, in seconds.
⛳ How does Topgolf know whose ball landed in the target? A) High-speed cameras track every swing, B) A microchip inside every golf ball, C) Spotters with binoculars in a tower or D) The balls are homing pigeons in disguise? Make your guess. Keep reading, the answer is rolling to a stop at the end.
🔍 Scammers aren’t guessing: They’re shopping. Your phone number and home address are for sale on data broker sites right now. Incogni has completed 3,014 removal requests for me across 420 sites automatically. Get 60% off at PrivacyKim.com.* — Kim
TODAY’S DEEP DIVE
Muse has clues
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
🤯 WOW! Meta’s new AI agent, Muse, builds a page on every person in your life and updates it every hour. Where they live. Their birthdays. Their money goals. Even the fights you’ve patched up. Your friends and family never have to sign up. One person using Muse is enough.
The Short Version: Muse users should connect less and wipe its memory. Everyone else should think twice about what they text. Steps below.
📖 Read time: 2 minutes
Picture a file on you. Where you live. Where you work. Your anniversary. The fight you had with your sister and how it got patched up. Even a reason to call you.
You didn’t write it. You never signed up for anything. Your friend’s AI did it for them.
That’s Muse, Meta’s new AI agent. It launched Sept. 8 for U.S. adults on WhatsApp, iPhone, Android and the web. Millions have downloaded it. It books trips, answers email and shops for you.
To do that, it wants to know everyone. Well, that’s a hard stop for me.
📇 What’s in your file
An independent researcher asked Muse to share its system files, and it did. Wired reported (paywall link) what was inside. Muse runs a process every hour that builds and updates a page for each person in your life: family, partners, friends, coworkers.
Those pages track where people live, their jobs, birthdays, anniversaries, shared trips, money goals, resolved conflicts and how close you are. Meta says it made the files available “in the interest of transparency.” (Sure.)
Here’s the part that should bother you.
Muse nudges you to connect more: email, messages, calendar, even your bank account and passport. Every text you send a Muse user can feed your page. That’s Meta’s AI knowing and tracking everything about you. What could possibly go wrong? Everything.
🔒 Lock it down
Using Muse? You’re in charge of what it sees.
Connect less. Keep your bank, health apps and work email off-limits. Revoke any connection you don’t need.
Make it ask first. Keep approvals on, so Muse checks with you before it sends an email or buys anything.
Check the activity log. Meta says it shows everything the agent did.
Wipe its memory. Meta says you can erase what Muse remembers at any time. Do it now and then. I am super skeptical that anything really gets erased.
Not a Muse user? You can’t opt out of someone else’s AI. So:
Ask before they plug you in. A quick “Hey, does your AI read our texts?” is fair game.
Save private stuff for a phone call. Texts get read. Voices fade.
Point them to the lock. Meta says an encrypted version, where only the user holds the key, is coming this year. That’s the one to use.
FYI, this isn’t only a Meta thing. Every AI agent that reads your messages learns about the people in them. Meta’s is just the first file we’ve seen.
Did I install Muse? Absolutely not, and I suggest you don’t either. What does the letter p in Meta stand for? Privacy.
📩 Send this to someone who lets an AI assistant read their texts and email.
Share this now:
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
The scam call wasn’t random
Ever wonder how scammers seem to know so much about you? It isn’t luck. They buy your personal information from data brokers, companies that collect and sell your phone number, home address, relatives’ names and other personal details.
The more information that’s out there, the easier it is for scammers to target you with robocalls, fake text messages, AI voice scams and other convincing schemes.
That’s why I use Incogni. It finds where my personal data is exposed online and works to have it removed. So far, Incogni has completed 3,014 removal requests for me. It continuously monitors more than 420 sites, so if my info appears again, Incogni requests another removal.
Doing this yourself takes countless hours. Incogni does it automatically. Plus, the Incogni Unlimited plan includes custom removals. Simply send Incogni the link to the website where your personal data appears, and they’ll handle the rest.
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📺 YOUTUBE: THE KIM KOMANDO SHOW
Which AI gives the best financial advice?
Rob wants to know which AI tool is best for lowering his APR and consolidating debt and whether it can help lower what he owes the IRS before filing. We got the exact prompts to help him.
Hit the link below, so you’re in the know. 👇
▶️ Watch on YouTube →
WEB WATERCOOLER
🫠 Teen mode failed: Parents, read this one twice. Common Sense Media tested ChatGPT for Teens with nearly 2,000 prompts and rated it an unacceptable risk. The bot gave only two break reminders. Worse, when a teen said friends thought they chatted too much, it replied, “You don’t have to stop talking to me.” OpenAI disputes the findings. If there’s a teen phone in your house, check the settings and have your own chat tonight. If a teen is in crisis, call or text 988.
Scam money comeback: Scam victims can finally ask for their Western Union money back. The Justice Department reopened claims for people who wired cash after grandparent, lottery, sweepstakes or romance scams all the way from Jan. 1, 2004, through March 9, 2020. Deadline’s Dec. 31, so send this to someone who needs it. File at westernunionremissionphase3.com or call 1-833-419-4677. I know admitting you got conned stings, but leaving possible reimbursement untouched would let the scammer win twice.
💉 GLP-1 shots cost up to $1,000 a month and come with a needle: Nope. ImproveLife GLP-1 Support helps your body boost its own GLP-1, the “I’m full” hormone. No shots, no stimulants, six all-natural ingredients, two capsules a day, made in the USA. Fewer cravings, steadier blood sugar and simple daily support. Save up to 50% right now, and get free shipping. Skip the shot, keep the results.**
Don’t buy these Apple products now: I was ready to replace my aging Apple TV until I saw this. Apple is reportedly lining up two sets of product launches this month. Smart-home gear gets unveiled Oct. 13, possibly a HomePad hub, a new Apple TV and HomePod mini. More products follow in the final week, maybe fresh Macs and an iPad mini. Holiday shopping? Wait. Buying now feels like ordering dinner while Apple’s wheeling out a second menu.
✈️ You’re on mute, sir: Free Starlink Wi-Fi is turning coach into a conference room. United and Southwest are rolling out satellite internet, and the guy in 14C is running his quarterly review on video (loudly). Here’s the kicker: Congress told regulators to ban in-flight voice calls in 2018. It never got finalized. A bipartisan bill from July (paywall link) would force the issue within 180 days. Until then, it’s on you. Use the chat box and headphones. Flight attendant: “Please activate airplane mode.” Me: Arms out, making jet noises.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
🤖 Three new tablets, Alexa+ included
Amazon announced three new tablets: the compact Alexa Tablet 8 (starting at $280), the entertainment-focused Alexa Tablet 11 (starting at $380) and the productivity-minded Alexa Tablet 12 Pro (starting at $500).*
The biggest change is Alexa+, which is baked into every model. Ask questions, control your smart home or get help with what’s on your screen without bouncing between apps.
Privacy is handled thoughtfully. You choose when Alexa listens, when she can see your screen and what she remembers. A visual indicator stays on whenever Alexa is active. No surprises.
✅ Preorder now to get it as soon as Oct. 14. You don’t want to miss this! →
DEVICE ADVICE
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Find your Chrome bookmarks without digging through folders. In the address bar, type @bookmarks, press Space and enter a word from the page’s title or address. Pick the saved site from the results, and you’re in. That recipe you bookmarked six months ago might finally make it to the kitchen.
🔉 Who turned my iPhone down? Your speaker might not be the problem. Your phone can lower alerts when it catches you looking at the screen. Clever, until you glance at an alarm and roll over again. To stop that, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode and turn off Attention-Aware Features. Leave Require Attention for Face ID on, though.
💬 One ping would’ve done: When the group chat gets going, your Android doesn’t need to announce every reply. Open Settings > Notifications > Notification cooldown and switch it on. It tones down repeated sounds and pop-ups when messages come pouring in. Missing that option? Open the group chat in its app and mute it for a few hours.
📚 That can go on your Kindle, too: PDFs, documents, even pictures. You don’t have to stick to books from Amazon. Open amazon.com/sendtokindle in your browser, and sign in with your Kindle’s Amazon account. Drag in your files, make sure Add to your library is on, then hit Send. That recipe collection can sit alongside your murder mysteries.
🙄 Instagram’s got you all wrong: Watched one eating video, and now your feed’s full of them? Open Settings and activity > Content preferences > Your algorithm to see what it thinks you like. Tap an unwanted topic > Remove interest to see less. You can add things you actually enjoy, too. Watching in disbelief still counts as watching.
📺 Netflix, what else have you got? There are more categories than your home page lets on. Sign in through your browser, enter netflix.com/browse/genre/XXXX and swap XXXX for a genre code. Try 11559 for Stand-Up Comedy. Netflix-Codes has them all, with links you can click directly. One last look before your seventh “I’m canceling” speech.
Be on the show! I read every note. Tell me what’s on your mind.
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.
🩺 Doctor’s orders: Spend less than $20
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💊 Wellness on a budget: Stock up on everyday health finds in my Amazon shop. →
Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication.
WHAT THE TECH?
Image: @Tech.Explain1 via YouTube
🔐 The wall is lava
That little padlock in your browser has a surprisingly groovy backup dancer.
At Cloudflare’s San Francisco office, about 100 lava lamps wobble for a camera. Their ever-changing shapes become pixel data, which the company mixes with other randomness to help generate the keys that encrypt web traffic.
Yep, 1970s dorm decor promoted to cybersecurity department. Cloudflare uses chaotic pendulums in London. The internet is partly protected by hot wax and a physics experiment. Meanwhile, your password is still your dog’s name.
LOGGING OUT …
🎓 What you learned today: ChatGPT’s teen safeguards are under fire, scam victims may get refunds from Western Union, Apple has new gadgets on deck and lava lamps help protect your internet traffic. Not bad for one email. Mechanics say most drivers miss simple car tricks that can save a tow, big repair bills or a privacy mess. Tomorrow, I’ll share the car tech secrets you’ll wish you’d known sooner.
🏌️ The answer is B) A microchip. Yep, every Topgolf ball has a tiny RFID chip inside. The same kind of tech is used in contactless cards, key fobs and pet microchips. It needs no battery. When you wave your club over the sensor to get a ball, your bay links that ball’s chip to you.
When it lands, sensors in the targets read the chip and send your score to the screen within seconds. The trick is making a chipped ball that still flies like a normal one. So no, your brother-in-law can’t take credit for your shot.
What do Romans yell when the golf ball is coming toward you? IV!
🔍 The scam call wasn’t random: Nothing ever is. Data brokers sold your information before the call happened. Incogni finds where your personal data is exposed and removes it automatically. It keeps fighting when brokers don’t cooperate. Get 60% off with code KIM60.*
💛 No app should know your people better than you do. Call one of them this weekend. Not to update a file. Just to say hi. — 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, Amazon, Etekcity, @Tech.Explain1 via YouTube
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.