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📬 Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here. Tomorrow: If you’ve ever yelled “representative!” into the void, this one’s for you. I’ll show you the phrases, phone tricks and complaint shortcuts that can finally get a real human on the line.
Happy Tuesday, {{first_name | friend}}. We can tap a phone to pay, unlock a car and bully a coffee maker into brewing from bed. So naturally, voting must be lasers, holograms and democracy by Face ID, right? Not so fast. Election security has taken a very “back to basics” turn, and paper is having a glow-up.
🗳️ In the 2024 general election, what share of all votes were cast on paper or left a paper record? A) 25%, B) 50%, C) 98% or D) Zero, we all vote with emojis now 👍? Keep reading, the answer is waiting for you at the end.
Today’s newsletter is brought to you by HeyPolo, the family location app that never sells your data. Not to advertisers, not to insurers, not to data brokers. Try it free for 14 days at HeyPolo.com/Kim before the holiday road trips start.* — Kim
TODAY’S DEEP DIVE
Snap out of it
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
🤯 WOW! For 7½ years, Snapchat let users stamp their real-life speed on a photo. Teens turned it into a game: Hit 100 mph, snap it, post it. Users, employees and even an investor warned the company. A 60-year-old dad was left unable to remember his own kids. Snap settled his case less than two weeks before a jury would have heard it.
Read time: 2.5 valuable minutes
This is a tough story to read. It was for me, but you need to know it.
Wentworth Maynard was a husband, a dad of three and an architectural draftsman who loved sitting courtside at his sons’ basketball games. In 2015, at 60, he was driving for Uber outside Atlanta.
One rainy night, an 18-year-old in a Mercedes slammed into his car. A passenger swore under oath the young driver was chasing 100 mph on Snapchat’s speed filter so she could post it. The last speed she remembers seeing: 113 mph.
Maynard spent weeks in a coma. He can’t walk unaided, cook or work. He doesn’t remember the house he renovated or his boys’ games. I read about him in this Bloomberg story (paywall link).
On Oct. 20, Snap settled a lawsuit 13 days before trial. Terms weren’t disclosed, and Snap admitted no liability. CEO Evan Spiegel said in his deposition that Snap was thoughtful about the design and had no regrets about the filter in this case.
🚨 They were warned, over and over
Court records show Snap heard the alarm bells for years:
Users begged it to remove the filter, warning it was killing people.
Snap’s own employees flagged it as a distracted-driving problem in 2015.
An investor asked whether Snap had reconsidered.
Reports from Philadelphia, Tampa and Wisconsin tied deadly crashes to the filter. It stayed up until 2021.
The trend didn’t die with it. Drivers, many of them young, still film themselves weaving through traffic at illegal speeds for TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Search #speedhunters and see for yourself.
💬 How to talk to your teen about this
Your kid has probably seen these videos. Skip the lecture. Start a conversation.
Ask, then listen. Try: “Have you seen those speeding videos on TikTok?” Let them talk first.
Tell them about Wentworth. He wasn’t racing or filming. He was a dad driving home. A few hours of likes for someone else’s whole life. Terrible deal.
Do the math. At 100 mph, a two-second glance at your phone means driving nearly a football field blind.
Give them an out. If a friend starts speeding or filming, they text you “X.” You call with a fake emergency and pick them up. No questions.
Set the rule. Turn on Driving Focus: Settings > Focus > Driving on iPhone, or Driving Mode under Digital Wellbeing on Android.
Snapchat removed the filter. You can remove the temptation, one honest talk at a time. You also might think about putting the whole family on HeyPolo. It calculates a driving score for you and each family member. More about that below.*
📩 Send this to someone who has a teen with a driver’s license.
Share this now:
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Your family’s location is for sale. Take it off the market.
Here’s the part nobody tells you. Some family tracking apps have sold location and driving data to data brokers. And guess who buys it? Insurance companies.
Slam the brakes once to dodge a squirrel, and your premium could pay the price. Seriously.
That’s why I’m all in on HeyPolo, from the makers of Surfshark. Your location is never sold. Not to advertisers. Not to insurers. Not to data brokers. Only the people you pick can see it.
📍 It’s way more than dots on a map:
Arrival alerts so you know when Mom gets to her appointment or the grandkids land for Thanksgiving.
One-tap SOS for everyone, plus a heads-up before a phone dies.
Crash detection and speeding alerts for drivers of any age (yes, teens and Grandpa, that means you).
One plan, whole family. No paying per person. iPhone and Android on the same map.
🎁 My exclusive deal: Try HeyPolo free for 14 days at HeyPolo.com/Kim. Set it up now, before everyone hits the road for the holidays.
Marco? Polo. Finally, a game where nobody sells your data.
Thank you for supporting our sponsors, who keep this newsletter free.
WEB WATERCOOLER
🍽️ Personal information platter: Just when you thought your mozzarella sticks were safe. A password buried in Applebee’s Android app let a researcher retrieve customers’ names, emails, birth dates, phone numbers, ZIP codes and login IP addresses. He couldn’t find a security reporting channel, so TechCrunch helped alert the company. How many people were exposed? Still unclear. The restaurant chain’s rewards program had 8.5 million members last year. That’s what I call an all-you-can-leak appetizer.
🎭 Comments for thee: I find it comforting that Jennifer Lawrence apparently unwinds by picking fights about Tudor history. The Oscar winner admitted she argues with strangers daily through a secret TikTok account, while her feed serves up skin care videos. The best part? When she joined Instagram in September, she warned she’d quit immediately if anyone was mean. Apparently, her 8.6 million followers owe her peace, but some stranger discussing English royalty is getting both barrels.
🐮 I wish I’d started taking this sooner: You know me, I’m picky about what I put in my body. But since adding ImproveLife Colostrum to my daily routine, I’ve never felt better! It’s made with premium, grass-fed bovine colostrum from American dairy farms to support gut health, immune function and overall wellness. Made in the USA with no unnecessary fillers. Save up to 25% today, plus get FREE shipping!**
📋 Neighbors deserve nouns: Your town’s next data center proposal apparently needs a publicist before it needs a yes from the neighbors. OpenAI wants officials to use friendlier names for these facilities, like compute campuses. The questions haven’t changed: How much power and water, what noise limits, whose money pays for upgrades? A new label won’t tell you whether the project comes with a tax break your household gets to help subsidize with higher utility bills. (I broke down exactly how data centers hit your power bill, your water and your taxes.)
🧳 Stop complaining about 10,000 steps a day: Karl Bushby, 57, left Chile on foot in 1998, vowing to walk to his mother’s home in Hull, England, with no planes, trains or cars. He crossed the frozen Bering Strait, swam the English Channel and logged about 31,000 miles. They hadn’t seen each other in 15 years. She cried, he held her and joked with her. Karl’s feet are officially legends. Leg. Ends. (Get it? Tough crowd today!)
🎤 PODCAST: DIGITAL LIFE HACK
Track your mail-in ballot online
Signature mismatches were the top reason mail ballots were rejected in 2024. Most states let you track yours online. Plus, we talk to Pamela about her fight against a data center planned on land that was promised as a park.
Click your favorite podcast player below to listen now or later:
🎧 Or search “Komando” wherever you get your podcasts. I’m everywhere.
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.
🏠 Home for the holi-DIYs
Spruce up your space before the rush.
💡 Merry little bulbs: Floodlights (20% off, $16)
4.5 ⭐ 9,900+ reviews
Want festive curb appeal in 30 seconds? Swap your regular white porch lights for these red-and-green LEDs. They shine like a 100-watt bulb but sip only 15 watts. Screw them into any standard socket.
Image: L LOHAS LED
⚡ One-click power: Tessan’s light switch (10% off, $15) couldn’t be simpler. Click the remote and turn the lights on or off from up to 100 feet away.
Right on target: This pocket-size laser measure (25% off, $30) reads up to 98 feet and sends readings to your phone. A great gift, too!
🔌 Tame the tangles: Hide ugly TV cords inside these peel-and-stick channels (33% off, $25). You can even paint to match your wall.
Sneeze-free season: More guests mean more dust. MERV 13 air filters (21% off, $48, six-pack) help catch fine airborne particles.
✨ More merry upgrades: Make your holiday to-do list easier. Browse my Amazon storefront.
Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication.
DEVICE ADVICE
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: No need to scroll through your Claude chat to find an old prompt. On the web version, click the chatbox and use the up and down arrow keys to cycle through previous prompts. ChatGPT has a similar trick. Press the up arrow in an empty message box to bring back your last prompt. Only the last one, though. Claude’s got the edge here.
✉️ Mail’s picking up your habits: On your Mac, open Mail > Settings > Composing tab > Responding and enable Personalize Smart Replies. It learns from past messages to suggest replies that sound like you. Someone asks about lunch or golf? Click an option to drop in a response, then change whatever needs changing. Hey, sometimes the hardest part is starting the reply.
🚗 About time, Google: Gemini is coming to Google Maps on Apple CarPlay, letting you ask multistep questions while driving. Try “Find a nice coffee shop nearby,” then “Take me to that one, but avoid toll roads.” To use it, tap the Gemini icon on the right edge of Maps on your car’s display. Remember to update Google Maps in the App Store first.
🤫 Siri’s side button has a new trick: With iOS 27.2, you can hold the side button to Type to Siri instead of speaking. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Siri and enable the new option. Then hold the button and type your question. Handy when you’re somewhere quiet and don’t want everyone hearing your business.
👀 Your Instagram’s not exactly hiding: If your profile’s public, strangers can find your posts on Google without opening the app. Lovely. Go to Settings and activity > Who can see your content > Account privacy and turn on Private account. Now they’ll need your approval to see your photos and follower list. As they should.
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
🎁 24 days of little treats, one box
4.3 ⭐ 2,500+ reviews
Gifts are more fun when they last all month. This Advent calendar packs 24 beauty and skin care goodies into one box, so there’s something new to open every day of the countdown.
Inside: hand lotions, shower gels, foot creams, soaps, bath bombs, bath salts, a body scrub, body lotions and plenty of little accessories. The kind of extras that make someone smile on a random Tuesday in December when the holiday chaos is winning.
Perfect for a friend, sister, mom or coworker. Or treat yourself. At $34 (16% off), it feels a lot more special than another gift card.* Secret Santa with a $35 limit? Done.
WHAT THE TECH?
Image: @inspiredbyiceland via YouTube
🧶 Wool you cover for me?
Your calendar says “quick sync.” Iceland hears a cry for help.
Visit Iceland lets you send a real knitter to your online meeting in your stead. In this case, “AI” stands for Authentic Icelandic, and their job is simple: Listen, survive the buzzwords and knit the biggest takeaway into a single word. It’s free, with about 330 hour-long slots offered through Nov. 20.
Check out the full ad here and the site here. Yes, this is a tourism ad disguised as an extremely cozy assistant.
I missed my last two knitting club meetings. I hope when I return I’m not out of the loop.
LOGGING OUT …
🎓 What you learned today: Snapchat kept its speed filter despite years of safety warnings, a security flaw exposed Applebee’s customer data, OpenAI wants friendlier names for data centers and Instagram posts may appear in Google searches. Not bad for one email. Customer service bots are getting smarter, but you can still beat them. Tomorrow, I’m sharing the best ways to escape phone-tree jail, skip hold music and get help faster.
The answer: C) About 98%. Yep, in the 2024 general election, almost all votes were expected to be cast on paper or leave a paper record. That’s up from 93% in 2020 and 82% in 2016. So while the rest of life keeps getting more digital, election security got smarter by keeping receipts.
Why does that matter? If anyone doubts the electronic count, election officials can pull out the paper and check it. Some ballots are marked by hand. Others come from a touchscreen that prints a paper ballot you review before it’s cast. Old school wins. (Seriously.) By the way, check your registration, polling place and deadlines at Vote.gov.
What do you call a haunted ballot box? A poll-tergeist.
📍 Before you go: Some family tracking apps have sold driving data that ended up with insurance companies. HeyPolo never sells a thing. You get arrival alerts, crash detection, one-tap SOS and the whole family on one map, iPhone and Android. Grab my exclusive 14-day free trial at HeyPolo.com/Kim.* Marco? Polo. Now you know where everyone is, and nobody else does.
💛 The best safety feature in any car is a conversation before the keys change hands. Have it tonight, even if you get an eye roll. I hope you have a great day ahead! — 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, L LOHAS LED, BODY & EARTH, @inspiredbyiceland via YouTube
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