Hello, Monday! What company did a tech CEO work for who said in 1999, “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it!”? Microsoft, AOL, Sun Microsystems or Google. The answer is at the end of this newsletter.

Hold on to your hats, folks, today’s tech news is coming in hot and heavy! Let’s dive in! — Kim

By now, you've heard me say it: Get rid of TikTok, Temu and Opera. Now, I’m adding even more Communist China apps to the list. No one else is putting this info out there, so I hope you share this with your family and friends. Use the links at the end of this story.

Other shady apps to steer clear of

If CamScanner is on your phone, get rid of it. The scanner app is wildly popular despite ending up on a list of apps banned over concerns that the Chinese government was using them to spy on American citizens. 

Pro tip: No app needed. You can scan on iPhone with the Notes app and on Android with Google Drive. Steps here if you need ’em.

Some of these apps, like Pinduoduo, contain malware. Temu is owned by the same Chinese company as Pinduoduo and sells low-quality junk. 

Shein is another you’ve asked me about. It was founded by a Chinese billionaire and is also known for shoddy merchandise and poor service. Oh, and their labor practices are awful.

Turbo VPN has been downloaded over 100 million times and has had multiple Chinese nationals as directors.

TikTok, Lemon8 and CapCut are all owned by ByteDance. It’s based in Beijing and is required by Chinese law to give the government access to collected data.

12 apps on my “no download” list:

Here's a — certainly not exhaustive — rundown of apps with ties to the Chinese government and their parent companies.

• TikTok - ByteDance
• Lemon8 - ByteDance
• CapCut - ByteDance
• Pinduoduo - PDD Holdings
• Temu - PDD Holdings
• CamScanner - Intsig Information
• Shein - Roadget Business 
• TurboVPN - Innovative Connecting
• WeChat - Tencent
• UC Browser - Alibaba Group
• SHAREit - SHAREit Technologies
• Opera - Golden Brick Silk Road Fund Management

Of course, most say the government doesn't have access to customer data. Do you trust that? I don’t. Remember, in Communist China, you can’t use iMessage. You use WeChat.

Play it safe: Avoid these apps and sites altogether. It’s never too late to get rid of them. And be sure to pass this information along to your friends and family.

See the world: Work in tech? Want to travel? The State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy (that’s a mouthful) is hiring cyber and digital officers in every embassy around the world. The Polish embassy is really shiny.

Crypto PSA: Never, ever give out your seed phrase that lets someone take over your wallet. It’s about 12 to 24 words — the key to your account. Scammers are chomping at the bit and saying they need it to fix a “security issue.” Keep smart out there!

Uber cheap: Get up to 25% (or $10) off two rides in Uber’s fancy gas-free fleet, aka the Comfort Electric option, until May 1. Use promo code GOELECTRIC and a Tesla, Polestar or Ford Mach-E will pick you up. My last Uber driver told me he stuffs dead animals for extra money. I told him he was a taxi-dermist. He didn’t laugh.

Pretty bright: Hackers have a new method to break into your car: Through the headlights. They can gain access with just a chip from a cheap JBL smart speaker. To see how it works, watch this video.

Nerd mode: Android 14 beta is live, and if you have a Pixel 4a 5G or newer, you can install the latest OS. No word yet on when it’s coming to Samsung or other non-Google phones. But prepare to deal with some annoying bugs. Hopefully, my jokes will get beta with time.

Mac conspiracy treasure: There’s a hidden Bitcoin Whitepaper from 2008 on your Mac. Conspiracy theorists say Steve Jobs wrote it, but it was probably an Apple engineer into crypto. We have steps to find it on the site. (But if we put the secret code here, it breaks our email!)

Sound like a tech pro, even if you're not one. Try my award-winning, daily podcast. Search for my last name with "K" wherever you get your podcasts and "Go Komando!"

Listen to my podcast, Kim Komando Today, here.

Rumors of the next iPhone OS are swirling around ahead of the official announcement in June. Let’s unpack what’s being said about iOS 17.

Which phones will be supported?

An “Apple Software Analyst” tweeted that iOS 17 will support all models of the iPhone supported by iOS 16. This includes the iPhone 14, iPhone 13, iPhone 12, iPhone 11, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone SE (second generation and later).

👎 A conflicting rumor says iOS 17 will drop support for the iPhone 8 and iPhone X. I think this is true.

Control Center updates: “Major changes” are coming to the Control Center, which has looked the same since iOS 11 came out five years ago. I sure hope so. They need to up that game.

Dynamic Island expansion: Right now, Dynamic Island is only available for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. It’s an interactive space in the notch at the top of the screen that shows notifications and other stuff. Rumors say it’s coming to all four iPhone 15 models. I use this a lot on my iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Widgets upgrade: Buttons, sliders and other upgrades to make widgets more user-friendly.

Camera updates: The camera app’s layout and interface could totally change — just when you finally figured out how it works.

🙄 Have you ever noticed that iPhone cameras look like a stovetop? That’s because Tim Cooks.

“Alexa,” do this. “Alexa,” do that. That’s called a “wake word,” and while the word itself is customizable, it can be annoying to say it over and over while you walk through a process that takes multiple steps.

You can enable Follow-Up mode by:

• Tapping into the Settings section of the Alexa app.
• Choose the speaker you want to modify.
• Scroll to General and switch Follow-Up Mode on.

Pro method: You can also enable Follow-Up mode by saying, “Alexa, enable Follow-Up mode.” Do this for each speaker you want to enable it on.

Now, after each command, Alexa will stay active for a few seconds waiting to hear another request. I know some people who I wish had follow-up mode.

😤 Echo driving you up the wall? Solve Alexa’s most annoying problems →

There are just too many cybercriminals trying to worm their way into your system and steal from you. Even the most tech-savvy folks can be fooled. You don’t even need to click anything to download malware anymore.

That’s why you need powerful software that can sniff out malicious files for you. I trust TotalAV. It’s simple to install and use, and they’ve received the VB100 award for detecting more than 99% of malware samples for the last three years in a row. (Yeah, that’s a big deal.)

Nothing like that blast from the past to make ya feel old.

☀️ The answer: CEO and co-founder of Sun Microsystems Scott McNealy said that. In 2010, he sold his company for $7.4B to Oracle. What does a billionaire say when he has the flu? I feel like a million bucks! Ha!

🤩 Well, I hope you learned something new here. And do me a solid — tell a few people you know to give our newsletters a try. Tell them to hit the link at Komando.com that says, “Free Newsletters.” I’d really appreciate that! — Kim