⚠️ Facebook changes tracking policies

📬 Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here. Tomorrow: That shoebox of cracked, faded old photos in your closet? I’ll tell you the free AI tool that brings them back. It’s incredible.

Welcome to your Thursday, {{first_name | friend}}. You know Facebook watches what you do on Facebook. Here’s the part that stings. Other apps and websites, the games you play, the stores you shop, all the stuff that follows you have been quietly shipping your activity back to Facebook for years. Until now, that data mostly fed one thing: the ads you see. That’s about to change in a big way. 

🥸 What will all that data about what you do when you are not on Facebook start doing this summer? A) Shape your Facebook Feed and AI answers, B) Delete itself automatically every 24 hours, C) Ship straight to your car insurance company, D) Pop up as targeted ads inside your private group chats. Take your pick, the answer’s at the end.

Today’s newsletter is jam-packed. Let’s do this! — Kim

⚡ TL;DR

📖 Read time: 2.5 minutes

When Jennifer called the show, she wasn’t newly diagnosed. She’s a year into this fight against cancer, and hope is running thin. She asked me one thing: How can AI be her advocate and help her find clinical trials?

Here’s what you need to know, and why it’s personal.

After my father died suddenly when an OTC allergy remedy worked against his prescription heart meds, I asked my mom to move in with me. I was 26. We were more like sisters, really. 

Boom. 2017. The Mayo Clinic said there was nothing more they could do for her pancreatic cancer and they gave her three months. I asked her if she wanted to fight it. She said yes.

I took her to MD Anderson in Houston, where she joined two clinical trials. The cancer went into remission, then came back with a vengeance, five years after Mayo’s prognosis. That second look opened doors the first one couldn’t. So when I say don’t stop at the first no, I mean it.

You don’t need a medical degree to fight smart. You need a translator and a prep coach. Feed AI your test results, and it explains them in plain English. Ask it to turn your treatment history into one clean page for any new doctor. 

Strip out your personal details, then open ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Grok and paste this:

Now you walk in informed, not overwhelmed.

Clinical trials are how patients get tomorrow’s treatment today. The catch: They’re buried in databases written for researchers. Let AI decode them:

Don’t rule out a study for being far away. Many cover travel. And ask your team about expanded access, also called compassionate use. It can get you an experimental drug when you don’t qualify for a trial, often free.

AI finds doors. It can’t choose for you, and it does get facts wrong. Bring every lead back to your care team and let them confirm. That’s how you chase real hope without getting hurt.

Jennifer, the fight isn’t over. And you’re not alone. You’re in my prayers, and I know many of our listeners and readers have done so and will continue to do the same. We stand by you! 🙏🏻

📩 Send this to someone who’s been told they’re out of options. Use the links below. That’s why they are there.

(Starts at 10:34) Late-night munchies are real. DoorDash is making your life easier. Its new AI feature lets you order food by typing a craving or uploading a photo. Finally, someone that understands our 11 p.m. food choices.

Listen on Komando.com →

Click your favorite podcast player below to listen now or later:

🎧 Or search “Komando” wherever you get your podcasts. I’m everywhere.

🏭 Hate thy nAIghbor: America built the cloud, then parked it by people trying to sleep. Residents near data centers in New Jersey, Michigan and Massachusetts filed noise lawsuits even though the sites claim they meet local limits. Why the gap? Many ordinances measure regular loudness, not low-frequency throb from fans and generators. We’ve got 3,000+ data centers running, 1,500+ coming and nearly 40% of all homes within 5 miles of one. AI’s making your bedroom sound like an idling truck.

Babies are expensive: We all know smartphones aren’t great for kids, but they might be turning America into a country of only children. Since modern phones spread around 2007, Americans have spent less time with friends in person, had less sex and watched more online videos 😉, right as births kept falling. Don’t blame the rectangle alone. 2025 hit the lowest fertility rate on record, and surveys point to the wallet: 38% cite finances, 17% job insecurity. Modern romance requires a down payment.

🕶️ Apple eyes Meta: Apple is putting cameras in your ears before Meta finishes making spy sunglasses socially normal. Apple is working on AI AirPods and N50 smart glasses, with the glasses possibly arriving late 2027 to fight Meta’s Ray-Ban and Oakley line. The AirPods use tiny cameras as sensors for Siri, while the glasses can capture photos and video. Meta’s caught heat for people recording unsuspecting women with smart shades. Now James Bond spy-level headphones? Oh boy. Privacy lawyers, stretch first.

The remix receipts: Turns out every embarrassing song you loved could have inspired today’s generation of AI sound slop. The Atlantic published searchable databases showing millions of copyrighted tracks allegedly used to train AI music generators without permission. These tools chew through real catalogs, then sell the results as creativity. Artists are furious because those machines compete with them. I’d at least like a muffin basket before my life’s work becomes training slurry. 

🐶 Sniffing meets scheduling: I fully respect using a golden retriever as a social life crowbar. Dog Date Afternoon is a new app for lonely pet owners who want their dogs, and maybe themselves, to meet nearby friends. You set up local outings instead of pretending another solo walk counts as community. Making a human friend is easier when your wingman has floppy ears and no fear of strangers.

A grandmother was arrested. Spent five months in jail. The culprit? AI facial recognition. It wrongly linked her to a fraud case in a state she’s never visited. She’s not the only one. University of Virginia researcher Maria Lungu shares how and why AI gets it wrong.

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Or search “Komando” wherever you get your podcasts. I’m everywhere.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Shopping for furniture and forgot the tape measure? Open the Measure app on your iPhone, move the circle to one edge, tap to add a point, then drag to the other side. It gives you a quick estimate before you buy something that blocks half the hallway. Bonus: Switch to Level and plop your iPhone on something to check if it’s straight.

🔥 A flood. A fire. Ransomware. A USB drive that decides today is the day. Your files can disappear in seconds, and those recovery companies want $2,000+ to get them back, if they even can. Chris from Austin knows because he’s out the money and 500 corrupted files on a dead drive. Carbonite runs quietly in the background, backing up everything automatically. When disaster strikes, you restore with one click. It’s like insurance for your digital life. Get 50% off and sleep better tonight.*

Android 17 is out: Pixel folks get it first. There are more Gemini features, along with practical upgrades. A new “bubble bar” puts recent apps at the bottom for quicker access. You can record your screen and selfie camera together for reaction videos, make custom missed-call messages and use Quick Share with AirDrop on older models. Go to Settings > System > System update.

🌙 Using your iPad in the evening? The blue light from your screen can make it harder to wind down later. Night Shift warms the colors, so it’s easier on your eyes. Open Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift. I recommend Scheduled, then Sunset to Sunrise, so it turns on automatically. Adjust the warmth slider, too.

Invisible desktop folder: Windows 11 lets you hide a folder in plain sight, no extra software needed. Create a New Folder, then open Character Map and paste a blank character as the name. Right-click the folder > Show more options > Properties > Customize > Change Icon, then choose a blank icon. Only you know it’s there.

🚫 Chrome’s ad-block squeeze: Chrome’s phasing out the old extension system, so some ad blockers won’t be as powerful anymore. Translation: The big boys that used to block YouTube ads and sponsored search results will stop working. If you use one like uBlock Origin, don’t be shocked. Current workaround? Move to Firefox.

A humanoid robot is training for Mount Everest, because apparently, regular mountaineering was not making humans feel fragile enough.

The robot is Pemba, a modified Unitree G1 that recently reached Chimborazo in Ecuador, a brutal high-altitude test full of ice, wind, volcanic rock and air thin enough to humble CrossFit people. The bigger pitch is practical: robots that could monitor glaciers, collect trash, haul gear or assist rescues where humans get flattened.

It still needs humans through dicey moments. Let’s just hope it remembers snacks. 

Check out the little climber here.

Share this now:

🔜 Tomorrow: That shoebox of faded family photos in your closet might finally get its comeback. I’ll show you how to repair scratches, sharpen faces and even colorize old pictures in seconds.

Tomorrow’s trivia: YouTube has more channels than seems reasonable. Wait until you hear how many are still awake.

The answer: A) Your Facebook Feed and AI answers. Meta confirmed that the activity other businesses share with it, like the games you play or things you buy on other sites, will personalize your Feed and your Meta AI answers, not merely ads. 

You can still opt out. You have to dig for it like a missing tax form. Here’s how to find it:

One for the road: What does the letter “p” in Facebook stand for? Privacy.

🍏 Before you move on: Prime Day is next week, but the Apple deals are already here. The hottest ones tend to disappear first. If an upgrade has been on your wish list, this is your chance to pay less. Shop the deals before prices bounce back.

Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily

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🎉 Keep it going! You got this! — Kim

Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, RENPHO, @pabloberlangab via X

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