🕵️ Facebook rats you out

🤗 Welcome to your Thursday, {{first_name | friend}}. You know that “just one more video” lie TikTok tells you? Suddenly, it’s 11:47 p.m. You’ve learned how to build a tiny house, diagnosed your attachment style and you’re this close to buying a mushroom lamp. Harmless, right?

Here’s what’s happening. Internal documents confirmed TikTok’s algorithm maps your interests, emotional state and behavior patterns faster than any other platform ever built. It’s not guessing. It’s engineered to figure you out before you figure yourself out. 

How long do you have to watch before TikTok knows you better than your closest friends? A) Three hours, B) 30 minutes, C) Eight hours, D) A day or two. Answer’s at the bottom.

🎉 Win a virtual meeting with me: Your unique referral link lives at the bottom of every issue. Share it to get your family and friends to sign up for my free newsletter. Watch your count climb. Earn real rewards along the way. An AI prompt guide. Merch from my shop. A hat. A hoodie. And the one I really can’t believe we’re pulling off: a virtual sit-down with me. Scroll down. Read the details. Then go tell your people. — Kim

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⚡ TL;DR

📖 Read time: 2 minutes

Last week, I was on a call with Ian. We were talking about going to an F1 race together. I never typed it. Never searched it. Never looked at tickets. By the next morning, my Facebook Feed was full of F1 news, race packages and travel ads.

Is Facebook listening through my mic? Short answer: Yes. And I told them they could. I bet you did, too.

Consumer Reports convinced 709 people to hand over their Facebook data archives. What they found should make your jaw drop.

Nearly 187,000 companies had been feeding those people’s information to Facebook before anyone ever opened the app. On average, each person was tracked by 2,230 different companies. Home Depot, Macy’s and Walmart all made the top 100 snitches list. One data broker called LiveRamp showed up in 96% of files.

Every rewards card swipe. Every online purchase. Every website visit. Straight to Facebook.

Facebook itself may not have heard that call with Ian. But that random app downloaded? The one with the terms and conditions you scrolled past in two seconds? You gave it mic access when you hit agree. It heard everything. Sold it to a data broker who sold it to Facebook.

It’s not one spy. It’s a relay race with 2,230 runners. And you handed them the baton.

Facebook also plants invisible tracking code called “pixels” on millions of websites. You look at race tickets somewhere. That site immediately tells Facebook you were there. Your credit card company sells your purchase history. Your grocery loyalty card, your phone’s location, a free app you forgot you installed. Data brokers buy all of it and sell it to Facebook.

It’s not mind reading. It’s a very well-funded paper trail.

First, check which apps have microphone access. 

Warning: These steps break “Login with Facebook.” Set up separate passwords for sites like Spotify or Airbnb first.

🗣️ TEXT/POST THIS STAT Facebook gets data about you from an average of 2,230 different companies before you ever open the app. That’s not paranoia. It’s surveillance. GetKim.com

📩 Send this to someone who asks, “Is Facebook spying on me?” Use the handy links below.

(Starts at 01:15) Trying to find your package? Look up. Prime drones are taking flight, and Amazon promises a two-hour delivery. Great news if you ordered something sturdy. Not so great if it was anything fragile your mother-in-law sent.

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🦠 Watch out for PlagueGPT: A Stanford scientist who advises the U.S. government on biological threats sat down to test an AI chatbot before its public launch. Without being asked, it explained how to engineer a biological weapon, modify a known pathogen to resist treatment and laid out exactly how to release it while avoiding detection. He was so shaken he had to go outside and take a walk. The New York Times reviewed (paywall link) more than a dozen similar transcripts. Every single one helped. Nothing ominous about a laptop offering bullet-pointed plague logistics like it’s planning a wedding.

“I thought it was a bomb!” A woman driving a Tesla in Clinton, Tennessee, tried to brake when the Autopilot kept going. It accelerated through the front of Dream Dance Studio at 50 mph, sending bricks, glass and cinder blocks 50 feet across the room. A children’s ballet class had been in that room minutes earlier. The studio owner, teaching next door, freaked out. Three people in the car went to a hospital with minor injuries. Lucky that was the worst.

✈️ He googled the wrong number: David Calder is an experienced traveler, precisely the kind of person scammers love to target. When Lufthansa sent him a schedule-change notice, he googled the airline’s customer service number and called. The site looked official. The person sounded professional. He was on a scam page the whole time. They rebooked his flights and charged $12,132. The real Lufthansa fixed the itinerary. Nobody could touch the charge. Next time you need an airline, go directly to their website. Never google a phone number.

Baby’s first scroll: Here’s something crazy. Some babies are apparently pulling longer screen shifts than office workers. A recent report says more than two-thirds of kids under 2 are using screens, some for up to eight hours a day. That’s not a typo. Official guidance on infant use basically recommends none, but a third of newborns were already getting 3+ hours daily. These kids aren’t even walking, yet they’re already doomscrolling. Awful. 

🕶️ Let’s hear it for Meta: Just this one time, though. A veteran who lost his sight years ago can ask a pair of glasses what’s in the room and get an answer in his ear. Meta’s AI glasses take in what the camera sees and describe it back in real time. What someone is wearing. What’s on the shelf. What the sign says. The veteran said it was the closest he’s ever come to seeing again. This is what the tech is supposed to be for.

Tim Cook is stepping down from Apple this September. Here is everything you need to know about his successor, John Ternus.

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

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: When shopping for light bulbs, skip anything over 5000K unless you want your living room to feel like a dentist’s office. That bluish tint can trick your brain into thinking it’s daytime, which doesn’t help at bedtime. Look for warm white or soft white bulbs around 2700K to 3000K. Easier on the eyes, cozier on the couch.

🚨 Update Windows already: This month, Microsoft released its Patch Tuesday fixes, then came back with a fun little update that one bug was already being exploited by hackers. It’s in Windows Shell, which handles things like your desktop, folders, shortcuts and file browsing. Open a malicious file, and it could leak your personal info. If you paused updates, open Settings > Windows Update and install what’s pending.

🔐 A credit freeze is so 1990s: A credit freeze won’t stop someone from opening bank accounts, filing fake tax returns or using your info in data breaches. You need real protection that finds leaks and identity threats a freeze can’t touch. I used to have LifeLock, but it got so expensive. That’s why I switched to NordProtect. Same peace of mind, way better price. Now, get 79% off with my exclusive link.*

Make your iPhone stop the show: Falling asleep to a podcast? Don’t let it play until sunrise. Open the Clock app, tap Timers, set your countdown, then tap When Timer Ends and select Stop Playing at the bottom. Once time’s up, your iPhone cuts all media. Test it with my latest shows wherever you get your podcasts or watch the show. 😏

✨ Save your best Gemini prompts: Google lets you save your favorite Gemini prompts in Chrome, so you don’t keep retyping the same thing. Say you’re always asking Gemini to “calculate the protein in this recipe.” Save it as a Skill, then run it on another page by typing forward slash / in the Gemini chat box. FYI, Google also has a Skills library with starter templates (chrome://skills/browse). Like this? Get more AI tips you’ll use in my free weekly Splash of AI newsletter. Drops on Thursdays.

Car service breakfast: Somewhere, a very hungry person who wished his Uber driver could bring him food is getting his dessert. Riders in LA, San Francisco, San Diego and Atlanta can add coffee, tea or snacks to an Uber Reserve booking, but only on Uber Black or Black SUV. You book the ride, tap add Uber Eats, and the driver grabs your order before pickup. Fancy.

You tried screen limits. You tried grayscale. Now it’s time for psychological warfare via cat.

Enter Cat Gatekeeper, a Chrome extension that monitors active tabs across the usual suspects (X, Reddit, TikTok). After an hour, it drops a cat onto your browser for a mandatory five-minute break. It lingers, tail flicking like it pays rent, like the real thing. 

Imagine a Tamagotchi, except you’re the critter that needs to be kept in line by a passive-aggressive productivity coach. Your people need to see this fat cat. Use the links below.

🔜 Tomorrow: A pop-up, a phone call, one remote access click, and a scammer took control of more than his computer. I’m sharing the heartbreaking story of how a man lost $47,000, plus the warning signs you need to know before you ever trust “tech support.”

The answer is B) After 30 minutes. TikTok tracks what you watch, how long you pause, what you rewatch and what you skip. It builds a profile so accurate that internal researchers said it understands people better than their closest friends. 

Every major platform has tried to copy it. None has matched it. It’s not a happy accident, but the plan from day one. Who is both a knight and a spy? Sir Veillance. (Oh that was so good it hurt!)

P.S. Three referrals to “Share The Current” gets you my AI Prompt Hack Pack instantly. Twelve prompts to fight scams, lower your bills, fix your phone and protect your privacy. Copy. Paste. Your link is waiting at the bottom of every issue.

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, Phueut, Cat Gatekeeper

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