📱 Your phone is quietly selling you out

Welcome to your Sunday, {{first_name | friend}}. If you thought monks only did Gregorian chants and baked bread, think again. These Wyoming Carmelites cracked the code of e-commerce, building a booming online biz and funding the construction of their Gothic monastery. 

⛪️ Take a guess what they’re selling: A) Hand-stitched leather sandals, B) Specialty, single-origin roasted coffee, C) Illuminated manuscript reproductions or D) Hand-carved wooden prayer beads. Find the surprising answer at the end. 

📺 Tired of scrolling for something worth watching? Head to my YouTube channel! It’s packed with smart tips, real laughs and tech talk that actually matters. Click now and enjoy screen time that’s finally worth it. — Kim

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“Kim, I get that there are shady people-search sites and data brokers making money by selling my name, address and shoe size to anyone from scammers, stalkers and insurance companies. Why should I pay to remove this? This should be against the law! Why is the burden on me? How do companies gather all this up about me?” — Austin in Atlanta

Excellent question, Austin. The nonstop sale of our personal information should be illegal. And no, it shouldn’t be our job to clean it up. I agree with you 100%.

The reason you have to pay companies like Incogni (a sponsor of my national radio show) to remove your data is because the law is built to protect the data collectors, the government and the sellers, not us. Let me explain.

Our smartphones are powerful surveillance tools. Your phone constantly sends signals to GPS satellites, Wi-Fi networks and cell towers, even when you’re not using any apps. 

Now, add the apps. They’re grabbing everything you do. Everything. Your info gets bundled up and sold to data brokers who then resell it to anyone willing to pay, including advertisers, insurance companies, foreign buyers and, yes, U.S. government agencies like the FBI.

Under the Fourth Amendment, the government is supposed to need a warrant to track your location. But they can easily buy that data from a broker, no warrant is needed. Your movements and habits can be tracked without your knowledge, consent or a judge’s approval.

So the legal protection we think we have? Nada. Zilch.

There is no federal law that stops companies from collecting and selling your data. A few states, like California, let you request deletion. Go ahead, try it. You have to hunt down and contact hundreds of companies, and they make it difficult on purpose.

There is a bill in Congress right now called the Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act. It would stop government agencies from buying your data without a warrant. The House passed it. 

The strong, unified opposition from the administration and major law enforcement groups (who say the bill would hurt investigations) makes passing it through the Senate a very difficult prospect. And this is only the government buying, not the hundreds of data brokers out there gathering, buying and selling anything they can about you.

✅ Your best bet is to take matters into your own hands. Get Incogni. 

It contacts over 420 data brokers on your behalf, forces them to delete your personal info, and keeps following up to make sure they actually do it. Until and if the laws ever catch up, Incogni is your best line of defense. 

Listen, I hate spending money, but like you mentioned, Austin, scammers and stalkers can buy all your personal info, too. Use my exclusive link to get 60% off right now. Because your privacy shouldn’t be optional, and it definitely shouldn’t be for sale.

A dad’s attempt to buy a $1,200 e-bike turned dangerous when guns were drawn on him and his son. I talk to the father, plus, Australia kicks kids off social media, a chatbot charged with murder, and a DoorDash delivery disaster. Make music with AI? I challenged it to write a hit.

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Or listen now wherever you get your podcasts, search for “Kim Komando”

🙏 Programmatic God: Elon Musk has officially upgraded from “I’m an atheist and nothing matters” to “God exists, maybe as a programmer.” On a podcast, Musk said he believes the universe had a creator, possibly running a massive simulation where we’re basically content trying to keep ratings high so the computer doesn’t get turned off. That is classic Musk. Big ideas. Tech metaphors. A dash of science fiction. He also described himself as a “cultural Christian” and spoke positively about the teachings of Jesus. Christianity is a relationship with one true God, grounded in the Bible, not an algorithm. I hope he sees that.

Toxic talk: This one’s sneaky in a new way. Hackers figured out how to weaponize ChatGPT, making it look like the bot was giving legit tech advice. A person Googled “clear disk space on macOS,” clicked what looked like a real ChatGPT answer, pasted a command into a terminal, and boom, malware. Passwords, crypto wallets, gone. It’s the new era of “it feels safe because it feels familiar.” Never paste terminal commands from shared ChatGPT links or search results, no matter how helpful they look.

🤳 Selfie shopping: Google made online shopping even lazier, and I mean that lovingly. You can upload one selfie, pick your usual size, and Google’s AI will generate a full-body avatar to try on clothes right in Search and Shopping. No full-body photos, no app downloads. It’s powered by a new Gemini model that fills in the rest of your body based on proportions. 

Claim what’s yours: I told you about this before, and here’s your reminder. If you used AT&T any time in the last decade, you might be owed part of a $177M data breach settlement. Some folks can get up to $5K. Deadline to file is Dec. 18 at telecomdatasettlement.com. They gave your info to hackers, so you might as well get paid for it. 

Food gets audited: You know how you sniff leftovers and guess? Researchers are trying to end that forever. They’ve built a smart food wrapper that uses tiny gold-and-silver sensors to track freshness, bacteria and even pesticides in real time, while also slowing spoilage. The catch? It’s five years away. If you’re still eating Thanksgiving leftovers, please stop. Get help.

🚽 Toilet time trap: Have you ever checked just one thing on your phone in the bathroom and ended up taking a short vacation? Researchers found that 66% of people scroll on the toilet, and those folks had a 46% higher risk of hemorrhoids. The reason is brutally simple: Phones make you linger, increasing pressure where you really don’t want it. A Harvard doctor’s advice? Leave the phone outside, or set a five-minute timer. Yes, really. On Earth, we get hemorrhoids. In space, they get asteroids. (lol)

The calls won’t stop: Real customers lose thousands to a cloned version of caller Jesse’s business website. What’s the nuclear option to legally force a shutdown? Plus, laptop prices skyrocket, deepfake kidnapping scams and AI Christmas toys.

Listen on Komando.com →

🎧 Or listen now wherever you get your podcasts, search for “Komando.”

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Watching videos on Facebook can burn through your mobile data fast. Good news: You can cut usage by up to 40% by lowering video quality. In the app, go to Settings > Media and turn on Data Saver. 

Get full websites on iPad: Ever visit a site that looks weird or hides buttons you need? In Safari, tap the rectangle/lines icon in the URL bar, then the three dots, and select Request Desktop Website. The full desktop version will load, like on a computer. Handy for those pages where you need to upload files or fill in forms.

💭 Try AI Mode in Chrome: You’ll see the button under the Google search bar. Open it and you can ask full questions, as opposed to a basic search. It gives detailed answers with helpful links. FYI, you can ask follow-ups in the prompt bar below. And yes, it’s free. 

Best times to post on LinkedIn: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday between 9:00 AM and 12:00 PM local time. Hitting mid-morning when professionals are checking their feeds is key for maximum reach. If you need to post a job, use this link to post it for free.*

Build your vocab with Kindle: Come across a tricky word while reading? Tap and hold it to see the definition. The cool part? Your Kindle saves every word you look up and turns them into flash cards to review later. Tap the three-dot icon (top right) and select Vocabulary Builder to see them all.

🐢 PC starting up slow? It’s probably all those apps running in the background. On Windows, open Settings > Apps > Startup and turn off anything you don’t need right away (like MS Teams). That’ll free up some RAM. Still lagging? Open Task Manager > Processes to see what’s hogging resources. Here are my recs if it’s time for an upgrade.

Password sanity check: Reusing the same password everywhere is how one hack turns into 10. I use NordPass to generate strong, unique passwords and store them securely across all my devices. Their holiday deal is solid. Get 58% off plus four extra months free right now.*

Be amazed: See an octopus learn to play piano and be inspired to learn yourself. You seriously need to watch this. It’s incredible.

The best-sellers: Scan these lists and get your shopping finished. I’m almost done, I think.

🚶🏼‍♀️ Take me on a walk: Click to listen to my latest show on Apple, Amazon Music, iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts. I also make chores go by faster!

Tired of paying for Quickbooks? Try this 100% free open source accounting program that’s great whether you run a small business or home empire tracking bank accounts, stocks, retirement accounts, income and expenses. Works on Windows, Mac and Linux. Get it here.

🛍️ One quick holiday note: I’ve been having fun designing stuff in my Etsy shop that actually gets used, including tough iPhone and Samsung cases, AirPods protectors, cozy hoodies and beanies, and more practical extras. If you’re wrapping up gift lists, take a peek and see if anything fits someone you love.

Shoei launched the first motorcycle helmet with fully integrated AR, because the one thing missing from riding on the highway was a user interface.

For $1,199, the GT-Air 3 Smart shows speed, GPS directions, calls and alerts directly onto your visor, using a nano OLED display readable in full sunlight. No bolt-on hardware or weird side modules. Just data floating about 10 feet in front of your face like a video game tutorial you can’t skip.

☕️ The answer: B) Specialty, single-origin roasted coffee! The Carmelite Monks of Wyoming aren’t only chanting and roasting. Their online business, Mystic Monk Coffee, began humbly with a skillet in 2007 and now generates millions in annual sales. Here is a video about it. That’s some serious holy grind. 

My husband and I were lying in bed, when he leaned over and said, “Why don’t you go make us coffee?” I said, “Me? The Bible says it’s your job.” “What? The Bible says nothing of the sort,” he said. Then I pulled out my Bible: “Look here, there’s a whole section called Hebrews!” 

This is the #1 free tech newsletter in the United States. Tomorrow, four last-minute tax moves you need to make right now!

🔓 You unlocked something beautiful today. — Kim

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Photo credit(s): Gemini, Ahasti, Amazon, Eyelights

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