🤯 Same car, $600 price difference

Welcome to your Thursday, {{first_name | friend}}. You’ve probably got thousands of pics on your phone, like vacation selfies, brunch plates, that one magnificent hair day in 2022. But one thing has taken the cake as the most photographed thing in the world posted to social media. 

📸 Here is your list of possibilities. Is it: A) The Eiffel Tower, B) F150 trucks, C) Mickey Mouse or D) Tacos? Take your best shot and check the answer at the end!

📥 Like this? Mark me as “not spam” and favorite this newsletter, or drag me from the promotions or junk folder to your primary inbox. This helps tell your email program you like the info you get for free every day to keep you tech ahead. Thank you for being here! — Kim

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Last month, my friend Anna was getting ready for a dream trip to Italy. Flights were booked, hotels lined up, but when she went to rent a car in Milan, the price came back at nearly $1,400 for the week. She texted me: “Kim, this is ridiculous.” I texted right back: “Open your VPN, set your location to Milan, and try that booking again.”

A few clicks later, the rental dropped to $800. Same car. Same dates. Same rental site. Mamma mia!

That’s not luck. It’s location-based pricing. And it’s happening everywhere.

You’d be shocked how many companies change prices based on where you appear to be. Hotels, car rentals, even subscriptions and online shopping sites are using your IP address (your digital location) to tweak what they charge you.

This practice is so common, the FTC published a report this year warning about companies’ “surveillance pricing.” This means they use your precise location and personal data to set individualized prices.

It’s not just your location. It’s your device type, cookies, currency settings and even your browsing history. These companies are watching and adjusting accordingly.

Now, don’t get sneaky. Always follow the terms of the site and the region you’re booking from. 

The next time you are buying something big like a trip, try this. Turn on your VPN. Search from a few different locations, especially in the country you’re traveling to. Compare prices. You might be shocked.

Anna was. And that $600 savings? It paid for her Amalfi Coast tour.

Before you go shopping around the world, please don’t use a free VPN. 

Most are based in China, and they make their money by logging, tracking and stealing your data. The whole point of a VPN is privacy, right? So if you’re using a shady one, you’re trading one set of spies for another.

I’ve used ExpressVPN for years. They’ve been a longtime sponsor of my national radio show for great reasons. They don’t log your activity, they’re lightning fast, and it literally takes one click to use it. 

✅ You can get four extra months when you sign up using my link. So protect your wallet and your privacy. Use the VPN I trust, which means you can trust ExpressVPN, too. By the way, if you sign up, I get no residuals or kickbacks.

Want the ultimate holiday gift? Your AI host, Mara, shares how to make your kid the star of their own custom children’s book. Then, she digs into why your car insurance is so high, the ransomware threat that just got way meaner and real-time deepfake calls.

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Or listen now on your favorite platform:

🔥 Fire fake-out: A Texas high school got evacuated after a fire alarm, and before anyone could finish their Starbucks, an AI-generated image started flying around social media showing the entire school on fire. Total fake. Parents panicked, cops got calls, and the fire department showed up to find, wait for it, an HVAC leak and a bunch of kids happy to get out of school. 

Drones in danger: Think you’ve got a stressful deadline? DJI’s about six weeks away from an automatic U.S. ban, not for breaking rules but because nobody started the government audit Congress demanded last year. The “risk assessment” was supposed to prove whether DJI’s gear was safe or sketchy. Instead, it’s just not happening. DJI’s been begging someone, anyone, to pick up the clipboard. I feel better that procrastination goes all the way up to the top.

Hyundai’s data spill: Drive a Hyundai? There’s a small chance (OK, not that small) your personal info took a road trip without you. Hackers hit Hyundai’s IT arm back in February, scooping up the names, driver’s licenses and SSNs of up to 2.7 million people. The company’s only now sending out the “oops” letters. 

🍷 OpenTable’s open secret: Every time you book through OpenTable, it’s quietly tracking you like the NSA. Not just your favorite drink but how long you stay, how much you spend and even if you’re a “late canceler.” Hosts see AI-generated notes like “frequent reviewer,” “high spender” or my personal favorite, “dines longer than average.” It’s only a matter of time before a class-action lawsuit blows the doors open and we see the dirt on us. I’m sure mine says, “Takes 10 minutes to explain how she wants her salmon cooked. Olive oil only, no butter. Center cut. Medium well with a light dusting of blackened seasoning. Two fresh lemon wedges on the side.” Although I would prefer, “Warning: Has strong opinions on fish and isn’t afraid to scale up.”

💾 Accidents happen every day. One laptop crash, one spilled cup of coffee, one disaster, and years of memories could be gone forever. I use Carbonite to automatically back up everything and recover it with one click. Save 50% at Carbonite.com/Kim.*

Feeling rushed at your appointment? New studies show more and more patients think AI has a better bedside manner.

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Or listen now on your favorite platform:

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Keep your iPad healthy. Go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health and turn on 80% Limit. It caps charging at 80% to reduce wear and extend your battery’s life.

🚨 Chrome alert: Google dropped a new update that fixes a serious security problem. Hackers could crash Chrome, bypass protections or run harmful code on your computer. The patch rolls out automatically, but it might take a few days to reach you. Get ahead by going to Settings > About Chrome > Relaunch. Phew.

More updates to install: It was Patch Tuesday, so Microsoft also rolled out fixes for 63 flaws on Windows. Go to Settings > Windows Update to make sure you’ve got it. One more thing: Windows 10 received its first Extended Security Update since support ended last month. You can still enroll, but save yourself some stress and upgrade for free (here’s how).

Clean your system: Ever feel like your computer’s holding onto too much junk? BleachBit can help. It’s a free tool that clears cache, internet history, logs and more you didn’t know was there. It works with apps like Chrome and can even “shred” files so they’re almost impossible to recover. Download it for Windows and Linux.

One endless page: If you use Google Docs for notes, meeting minutes or blog drafts, you don’t need those page breaks getting in the way. Click on Format > Switch to Pageless format to turn it into one continuous scroll. Bonus tip: Head to View > Text width to adjust how wide your text appears on the screen.

🍏 See iPhone updates on your Mac: With macOS 26 and iOS 26, you can link your iPhone to your Mac so live activities show up there, too. Go to Settings > Desktop & Dock > Widgets > iPhone and select the device. After that, you’ll see things like your upcoming flight info right in the menu bar, without reaching for your phone.

🏠 Home safety made simple: SimpliSafe is running its Black Friday deal early with 60% off any new system. Protect your home with easy setup, live monitoring and award-winning sensors that keep watch day and night. Get started at SimpliSafe.com/Kim.*

What’s the most you’ve spent on a sock? Not a pair of socks, but a sock. 

Apple dropped the $229 iPhone Pocket, a knitted sleeve for your phone. On a budget? Get a shorter version for $149.95 in color options like vivid orange or yellow.

Apple calls it “a celebration of the bond between iPhone and user.” It looks like you’re wrapping your phone in Borat’s mankini. Proof that Apple could slap a logo on lint and we’d buy it.

🇫🇷 The answer: A) The Eiffel Tower. It’s by far the most photographed object, according to social media trends. But here’s the plot twist: Snapping nighttime pics of its sparkly light show is technically illegal (yep, it’s copyrighted). 

You know you want it, so here it is. What does the Eiffel Tower have in common with a tick? It’s a Paris site.

Tomorrow, AI’s running the next generation of scams, and even tech bros with six monitors are getting played. This is the #1 free tech newsletter in the United States. Thanks for letting me in your inbox.

☀️ Stay steady, stay curious. The rest tends to follow. — Kim

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Photo credit(s): Gemini, Renpho, Apple

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This newsletter and its content are intended for informational purposes only. They are provided without warranty of any kind. You shouldn’t construe anything provided here as legal, health, medical, technical, tax, investment, financial or any other kind of advice.

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