Mark Zuckerberg’s favorite word is “public.” In Meta’s recent Q4 earnings call, he said, “On Facebook and Instagram, there are hundreds of billions of publicly shared images and tens of billions of public videos, which we estimate is greater than the Common Crawl dataset and people share large numbers of public text posts in comments across our services as well.”

Here’s what that means. Instead of using the Common Crawl dataset to train Meta’s AI like ChatGPT, it’s using your and my public data. And because it’s public (there’s that word again), they don’t have to get our permission or pay us for it. Nice.

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Like it or not, your personal information is online for anyone to find. This can include your full name, address, phone number, police record, employment information and more. People search sites scrape this information from public records, court records, social media and other sources.

Many sites exist solely to offer such services. You only need a small piece of information, such as a person’s phone number, and from there, you can locate more information on them. Tap or click here for our running list of people search sites with instructions for removal.

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A new car has over 1,400 microchips and runs on 100 million lines of code. Because it is connected, it can also collect a lot of data about you.

Your car is like your phone, computer or tablet now — always listening. What is your vehicle collecting? Way more than we’d all like to think.

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Data brokers and people search sites are more than just a nuisance; they’re a downright menace. I’ve been sounding the alarm on these digital peeping Toms for years.

Imagine a vast web of data brokers lurking in the shadows, all with one goal: To mine and sell your personal info to anyone flashing cash. 

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Nope, you’re not paranoid. If you feel like your smartphone and speakers are listening to your private chats, it’s because they are. 

In a now-deleted blog post, Cox Media Group revealed it can (and does) gather information from conversations and use it for targeted ads. They thought they were slick by removing the evidence, but we caught all the details. Don’t they know the internet is forever? 

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Privacy policies are no joke when it comes to how lengthy they are. Most people ignore them altogether because they’re too long. Get this: It would take about nine hours to read the privacy policies of the top 20 most visited websites in the U.S.

If you thought that was a chore, it would take about 47 hours to properly review the privacy policies of the 96 most frequently visited websites monthly in the U.S. Getting through it all would be a full-time job. A minimum-wage worker would earn roughly $338.14 in that time frame! 

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It’s a savvy shopper’s favorite time of year: Discounts and deals as far as the eye can see.

You’re probably like me — I don’t like paying full price. But is handing over your email address, phone number or even more worth it for a coupon code? Like most things tech, it depends.

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‘Tis the season for eggnog, twinkly lights and a whole lot of scams. Cybercriminals make a killing over the holiday season — just think about how often we pull out our credit cards.

The best way to stay safe is to know their tricks. I’ve got the inside scoop on phone scams tricking people out of money and info right now.

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Newsflash: Your data is constantly being collected and sold. “Gee, thanks, Kim. I know,” you might be thinking. “What do I do about it?” Lucky for you, I spend a lot of time trying to answer that exact question.

If you’re tired of spam calls, unwanted emails and that nasty feeling of always being tracked, keep reading. I’ve got a simple way to take a massive chunk out of this data collection mess, thanks to our sponsor, Incogni.

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This number blew me away: Nearly 90% of American adults are confident they can detect and prevent a scam. And yet, 27% say they’ve been a victim at some point. The numbers don’t add up.

That’s why I’m here for you. Let’s dive into some of the most common things that trip up even the tech-savviest among us and kick scammers to the curb.

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It’s been about a year since OpenAI launched ChatGPT. Now, everyone’s in a race to make their AI tech bigger and better. This week, Google announced significant developments in its Bard chatbot and it’s coming in guns blazing.

The new version of Google Bard brings a wow factor but at a cost. Wondering how it stacks up against ChatGPT and how well (or not-so-well) it protects your data? You came to the right place.

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Data brokers, people search sites and online background check services, oh my. At the end of the day, they all do the same thing — scoop up your personal info and sell it to anyone interested. Marketers are at the top of the list, but scammers can also find your information this way.

These sites hunt down your details from local, state, and federal records, courts, social media, forums and basically anywhere they can get their hands on it. Sometimes, they even buy info from other data brokers.

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When I read this report, I knew it would be important for you to know even though you do all the right things. You remove the shady apps from your phone and adjust privacy settings on your kid’s smart toys. Heck, you even stop Alexa from saving recorded conversations. You’re all set, right? Just wait until you get into your car.

Today’s cars are an absolute trainwreck when it comes to privacy. Mozilla recently researched 25 top car brands under its *Privacy Not Included warning-label project. Not a single vehicle passed the test, making cars Mozilla’s worst privacy product category examined to date.

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Spoiler: They are all super data-hungry. New research dove deep into shopping apps that collect sensitive consumer data. It found that 75% of the apps in the study share user data with third parties. Some even share this data with outsiders without informing you. Lovely. 

I’ve included the sketchiest apps here and tips to help you stay safe. Just because this research focuses on Android doesn’t mean my fellow iPhone owners are in the clear, btw. Apple does a little more to protect us from app tracking, but it still happens.

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People search sites collect your information from publicly available sources and offer it to anyone interested, including thieves and scammers. There are countless sites like this. So, how do you protect your data? You need to remove it.

In this edition of my Opt-Out Tuesday series, let’s remove your data from FamilyTreeNow.

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Ever text a picture to an acquaintance or someone you just met? Depending on your phone and camera’s settings, you may have inadvertently sent where you live, too. This is what someone can see from just a photo.

One good thing about social media is that most platforms wipe out this data. Still, they’re exposing you in other ways. Here’s how to check everything Facebook collects.

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Big Tech companies make it their business to get close and personal with you. Google is an especially ardent admirer. It knows more than some of the people closest to you. Weird to think about, huh?

It goes far beyond where you live, your age, interests and favorite stores. We’ve got the goods on three lists showing some of the data Google collects.

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Gift shopping, scammers, cooking the prime rib just right … There’s too much to worry about this time of year. Before you dive headfirst into the festive frenzy, I’ve got tech tips that’ll sprinkle a little magic on your celebrations.

As a holiday thank you to my loyal readers, I’m giving away an iPhone. Yep, you can win a new iPhone 15 (valued at $799). Enter to win now!

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You know by now you should keep the private things in life off the internet. Your middle name, job, city, pet’s name, the school you went to, your spouse’s name, the ages of your kids, your shoe size — the details a scammer or hacker would love to have.

A popular new TikTokker is proving most of us are a lot worse at this than we assumed. Let’s take a closer look at “consensual doxxing” and how you can dig up everything out there online about yourself.

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You might think you have a solid cybersecurity plan. You use strong passwords and defensive measures like VPNs and firewalls. But even the strongest shield gets dented from time to time.

It’s hard to remember all the settings you’ve adjusted and the passwords you’ve made over the years. Let this be your reminder to go in and make a few quick changes to protect yourself.

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