“Kim, I’m concerned that my phone is going to give me cancer. My wife tells me I’m paranoid. What do you think? Thank you for your newsletters and shows. It helps me keep up with our two teens.” — Robert in San Antonio, Texas

I understand your concerns, Robert. The FCC says the radiation coming from your cellphone is no big deal. A cancer surgeon friend told me he begs to differ. I play it safe and keep my phone away from my body and head as much as possible. (Yes, I’m that person taking calls on my AirPods or speakerphone.)

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I’m going to Japan in March and have looked up flights on a few different sites. Roundtrip prices vary as much as $900 depending on where you look. Oof!

Here’s the twist

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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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Retailers are getting really creative in how they get us to fill our carts. When I say creative, I don’t necessarily mean in a good way.

An estimated 79% of us shop online at least once a month, and 91% make purchases from our smartphones. Yes, me too. But how many of those purchases were manipulated?

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Don’t die. That’s 46-year-old Bryan Johnson’s main goal in life.

Bryan made $400 million when he sold his credit card processing company to eBay. Today, he lives in Los Angeles as a self-proclaimed “rejuvenation athlete” — and spends his time and money trying to turn back the clock.

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Sensors in today’s smartwatches can detect your heartbeat, track how you sleep and even monitor blood oxygen levels. If Apple gets its way, your watch will be able to track your blood sugar (and possibly send reports about it to your doctor).

If you’ve ever wondered, “Just how accurate are these smartwatch readings?” You’re far from alone, so I took a look. Smartwatches and fitness watches have some serious flaws you should know about.

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Your mobile phone is a lifeline to many daily activities. It is often the first thing we reach for in the mornings to check social media or pour over the latest news with a cup of coffee. It also keeps us in touch with family and friends.

So, when you forget to charge your iPhone overnight and it dies unceremoniously at lunchtime, you might feel lost or incomplete. Luckily, it doesn’t mean that all the functions are dead. There are a couple of handy features on your iPhone that still work.

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I cleaned out a cabinet a few years ago and found a stack of old Super 8 videos. I’ll never forget the way my Mom’s face lit up after I digitized videos of her late brother Harold Jr.’s wedding. Tragically, he died in a car accident not long after his wedding day.

Memories like that are so precious, but when was the last time you watched family videos? If they’re on VHS, it can be a pain. Even worse, every year that goes by, those tapes degrade a little more.

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I use Siri to send texts, put my phone on Do Not Disturb before I record, set meetings and lots more. One time I don’t use it? In an emergency. Luckily, emergencies are few and far between in my life (knock on wood), but I wouldn’t risk it.

Researchers asked voice assistants questions related to cardiac arrest emergencies. Yep, it was a complete disaster. You might think a quick “Hey, Siri” would pull up the instructions quickly and clearly, but that’s absolutely the worst thing to do. 

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With all the cybercriminals and digital threats, you shouldn’t pinch pennies when protecting your devices. Using free antivirus software can actually put you at risk. You need smarter, more robust tools to combat increasingly sophisticated hackers and scammers.

When it comes to antivirus software, you get what you pay for. Invest in a security suite that protects your computer and smartphone from today’s threats. Invest in our sponsor, TotalAV.

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As a small-business owner, dealing with attorneys means one thing: Spending a lot of money. I’ll never forget the lawyer I met with who charged $999 an hour. I wish I made that!

There’s a lot you need a real-life lawyer for, but there’s a lot you can do on your own with AI before opening your wallet.

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I hate when ads take over websites. They pop up and distract you. So frustrating when all you want to do is read an article. Then, there’s the other big problem. All these website ads follow you around on different sites to track you.

But ads aren’t just annoying — they’re dangerous. Cybercriminals use them to spread malware, adware, spyware and everything in between. 

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My car insurance just went up 32%. Did I have an accident or get a few tickets? Nope. Since 2020, car insurance rates in the U.S. have risen by a whopping 37%. The main reason? High-tech vehicles — aka anything remotely new — cost way more to repair. And you don’t need to have a high-tech car to feel the pinch. It’s hitting everyone.

Driving up costs

Our cars are packed with dozens of sensors and endless lines of computer code. Combine that with the rising cost of replacement parts and repairs, and voila, soaring auto insurance rates. 

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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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How bad are we at creating safer passwords? The latest data shows a whopping 75% of people worldwide don’t follow password best practices. We should know better … and yet, 84% of us reuse our passwords.

Why do I harp on this so often? You can blame over 80% of data breaches on weak or repeated passwords. Maybe you’ve never experienced the horror of identity theft, but let me tell you, it’s bad.

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I admit it. Whenever I look for a recipe online, I get annoyed that I have to scroll, scroll, scroll. Listen, I know your grandma had the best chocolate chip cookies, and chicken soup healed your soul back in 1997. I just want the recipe.

Bright idea: Copy the recipe’s URL into Just The Recipe to strip away the junk. It’ll give you just the ingredients and steps you need. Even easier: On a PC, hit Ctrl + F and type “Print” to go right to the recipe. On a Mac, it’s Command + F.

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Think of AI as a digital Swiss Army Knife. It’s sharp, versatile and surprisingly handy. It sounds overwhelming if you’ve never tried ChatGPT, Bard or any other big options. Trust me when I say if you can use Google, you can use AI.

Ditch the “too techy” excuses, and let’s get hands-on with this game-changer. I’ve got ideas for small business owners, students, parents, those looking for love online and more.

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Social media account hacking is on fire … not in a good way. Account hijacking has grown by as much as 1,000% annually in the last few years, with celebrities and politicians so mad about it they’re starting to sue.

The chances of your Instagram, X, Facebook or other account (even Spotify!) getting taken over by spammy bots and data-stealing thieves have never been higher. So don’t sit there all smug thinking, “Oh Kim, that could never happen to little ol’ me!”

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Whenever something new that can help protect your security pops up, you can count on me to make sure you know about it. Good news. Amazon just got on board the passkey train. Passkeys replace your (probably not that strong) password with something no one can hack: Your fingerprint or face ID.

A weak password brings all the hackers to the yard … and your Amazon cart, so this is a welcome addition to our cybersecurity arsenal. I’m not gonna lie, there are a few steps involved to get ‘er done — but follow the guide below and you’ll be up and running in no time.

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When you live with someone, you make a heck of a lot of choices together — big choices, like, “Should we sell our house and move to Thailand?” and small choices, like, “Should we buy this new recycling bin?”

Somewhere in the middle is an important, often infuriating step: “Whose email address should we use to log into Netflix?”

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