🚗 Shocker: Your car is spying on you (without GPS, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth)

Welcome to your Wednesday, {{first_name | friend}}. You’ve got four absurd billionaire tech exec hobbies in front of you. One is real. The others are the fever dreams of someone with too much money and a propensity for boredom. 

So what’s it gonna be: A) Bezos does flamethrower classes, B) Nvidia’s Huang practices street magic, C) Wozniak plays Segway polo, or D) Zuck collects Roman armor? Lock in your guess, and then see if you’re smarter than 90% of readers who get this wrong by checking the answer at the end. 

👉 Stop spam texts and calls right now. Data brokers sell everything from your address to your Social Security number to anyone willing to pay. Enter Incogni. They scrub your personal info from the web. I negotiated a 60% discount just for you. If you’re not 100% completely satisfied, they’ll refund your money.

💌 What would be your wild billionaire hobby? Let me know when you comment after rating today’s newsletter. I read every one! — Kim

📬 Was this forwarded to you? Be the first to know, not the last to hear. Sign up now. It’s free!

You already know your smartphone tracks your every move like a jealous ex. And your car? Duh, it’s been watching you since Bluetooth became a thing. 

Here’s the shocker: Researchers at MIT just revealed that your EV battery alone can quietly map your life without GPS, Wi-Fi or cell signals. 

Before you even think, “Kim, this doesn’t matter to me. I drive a gas car.” It’s important because at some point, you’ll probably own a hybrid.

Every time you accelerate, brake, idle or park, your battery’s energy use shifts. Researchers fed this data into machine learning models, and boom, they could pinpoint your starting point, destination, route and even how long you were at a stoplight. With over 90% accuracy. Dang.

Worse, this battery data is being collected and stored by carmakers, service centers, EV charging apps, insurers or anyone willing to pay for behavioral gold.

This isn’t just a Tesla thing. It’s any modern EV or plug-in hybrid with built-in telematics, which includes most new vehicles.

Yes, you can disable telematics in many cars (though it’s buried in menus or requires dealer help). But here’s what you give up:

It’s a trade-off: privacy vs. convenience. Most people never knew they were trading in the first place.

Go to Vehicle Privacy Report. It’s one of the few tools that shows what’s being collected (and how to remove it when you sell or service your car). Just because you turned off location services doesn’t mean your car stopped watching. 

🫡 Extreme data tracking and selling it all are a part of the EV future no one tells you about, but I will. 

And of course, also bring a smile to your face. Did you hear that Honda is coming out with the first electric vehicle with wireless charging? It’s called the Honda Accordless. 😂

Could you fall in love with a chatbot? Influencer and author Andrea Sunshine did, and then, in an instant, her AI romance was erased when all their chat logs disappeared. In this episode, Andrea opens up about how it all began, what it’s like to form a deep emotional bond with AI, and her fight to bring her digital lover back.

👉 Watch now. You won’t believe her story.

💸 AT&T might owe you cash: Talk about full bars. Two breaches. 173 million customers. One giant “our bad.” AT&T is settling for $177M and dishing out up to $5,000 per person. If you were a customer anytime this century, go here before the deadline on Nov. 18. Where else can you hear about these things?

As if cops don’t have enough to do: A man told Portland police his car, and 1-year-old, were stolen. Oregon cops pinged an AirTag and found both at a truck stop hours away. The kicker? The “thief” was the kid’s mom. Yup, another AirTag caught in the cross fire of a nasty co-parenting situation.

😭 This made me pause and think: Jim Acosta just interviewed an AI version of Joaquin Oliver, created by the parents of the Parkland shooting victim. It aired on what would’ve been Joaquin’s 25th birthday. The digital Joaquin discussed gun control, movies and grief. His parents emphasized it’s not about resurrection but making sure he’s not silenced again. If you were in their position, could you do this?

ElevenLabs hits a high note: The AI speech company released a new tool that sings and raps. For example, you can ask it to “make a relaxing jazz song with an ’80s vibe,” and it’ll generate a track in minutes, complete with vocals and instruments. It can do 29 languages and accents. It’s raising copyright eyebrows and soon, long-gone superstar hitmakers with new tunes.

📺 Just what we need, more streaming services: First up is Howdy, an ad-free Roku channel for $2.99/month with old shows and movies from Warner Bros., Discovery, Lionsgate and more. The catch? You’ll need a Roku device (25% off). Then on Aug. 21, Fox One drops for $19.99/month with live NFL, MLB and news. 

Proof that rocket science is history: In D.C.’s Air and Space Museum, there are five new galleries, two of them straight out of a sci-fi fever dream. I’m talking about Elon’s rocket guts, cosplay-level spacesuits and a clone of R2-D2 built by MythBuster Adam Savage. One display feels like a TEDx event on Mars. Goes to prove that despite the name, the Air and Space Museum has a lot to see there. (lol)

🥳 WOW! Now you can listen to parts of my newsletter on the go! Check out my new AI-powered podcast. And let me know what you think of George. I kinda like him!

Listen on Komando.com →

✨ Life’s messy. I’ve got the tools that make things shine.

One more thing: By age 60, collagen drops by half! Hello, joint pain and wrinkles. NativePath Collagen is my secret weapon. Just two scoops a day, and boy, what a difference! Get 45% off, free shipping and a bonus gift!*

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Made a whoopsie? Press Ctrl + Z on Windows or Cmd + Z on Mac to instantly undo your last action. Works for typing, deleting and formatting.

Manage iPhone subscriptions: Apple makes it easy to forget what you’re paying for. Go to Settings, tap your name and select Subscriptions. You’ll see a list of everything active. Choose See All Plans to check for cheaper tiers, or tap Cancel Subscription to drop it completely. 

🔎 Find anything fast in Microsoft Word: Can’t remember how to insert a table? Don’t waste your time digging through menus and settings. Click the search bar at the top, type in “table” (or whatever else you need), and the option will pop right up. FYI: This trick works in Excel, too.

Know what you’re getting into: Before starting a new book, go to How Long to Read to see how much time it’ll take. Just search up the title name. For movies, try using Bingeclock, and for shows, Tiii.me. Good sites for when you’ve got two days, not two months to spare.

🚫 Stop Chrome from running in the background: To shut that down, go to Settings > System and toggle off Continue running background apps when Google Chrome is closed. While you’re there, turn on Use graphics acceleration when available. Your little laptop will run a bit smoother.

31 years
How long the world’s oldest baby chilled in a freezer before being born. Frozen in 1994, he’s technically older than Friends, Google and probably your favorite jeans. Science: 1, Nature: confused.

1 afternoon
That’s all it took for AI to spot a missing hiker’s helmet in 2,600 drone images. After 10 months of silence, a few off-color pixels in a sea of rock cracked the case. Searchers found the hiker’s body the next morning, 600 meters below Monviso Peak. Weeks of human searching, replaced by one machine-powered glance.

70+ years
How long since the U.S. opened a rare earth mine. One dusty spot in Wyoming could supply America with rare earths for over 150 years. That’s phones, fighter jets and EVs covered till 2175. China controls 90% of processing right now, so yeah, this is big news for cowboy country. Yeehaw, meet geopolitics.

“Kim, I love your show. I hear you talk about AirTags to track your luggage. But is there a TSA-approved lock that also tells me where my suitcase is? That seems like a better option.” — Dennis in Florida

I got you, Dennis. Lost luggage is expensive, annoying and one of the fastest ways to ruin a trip.

The KeySmart SmartLock is a TSA-approved, sturdy $30 combo lock with built-in tracking via Apple’s Find My network (sorry, Android users). It pings your phone if your bag wanders off or gets left behind. 

Basically, it’s your AirTag’s overachieving cousin. Just don’t lose your phone, too, or consider yourself cooked.

PSA: Got a burning question for me like Dennis did? 🔥 Send it my way, and you might just land your 15 minutes of fame plus a $25 gift card, if I answer it in the newsletter or on my show.

Answer: C) Wozniak plays Segway polo. While others kick back in golf carts, bunkers or yachts, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak cofounded the Silicon Valley Aftershocks. They compete around the globe, mallet in hand, balancing on two wheels. Think of it like quidditch for techies with Segways flying off the shelves. (OK, that was a truly lame attempt at a pun.)

👉 Wait, one more thing: Incogni has requested my info be removed from over 1,900 different data-broker and people-search sites. I’ve tried doing this myself over the years, and I was happy if I got to a dozen. Incogni offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose except frustrating spam calls and email. Use my link for 60% off.

🥳 ICYMI: Hit this link to listen to a new podcast that contains parts of my free newsletter, so you can listen on the go!

This is the #1 tech newsletter in the U.S. Tomorrow, she rang his doorbell. Smiled. Took his bank card. Then drained his bank account. You need to hear this story!

Until then, you stay connected. I’ll keep you protected. 🫶 — Kim

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Photo credit(s): ChatGPT, KeySmart

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