Big day in tech history, friend. On this day in 1984, the first Apple Macintosh was introduced. It had an 8 MHz Motorola processor, 128KB of RAM, a 9-inch black-and-white monitor and a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive. Based on how much it cost 40 years ago, how much would that Mac sell for today? Is it … A.) $1,500, B.) $2,800, C.) $5,500 or D.) $7,400? You’ll find the answer at the end.

🎦 Have you caught an episode of my LIVE daily show? Yesterday, Andrew had me cracking up with a joke I won’t repeat here. Stream it live today at 11:30 a.m. Arizona time on YouTube, or watch us on Facebook or Rumble! You can also catch the recording later, on your schedule. I promise you’ll love it. — Kim

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

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

Your car is so nosey

The Vehicle Privacy Report is put out by a company called Privacy4Cars. They delete synched personal data from used cars before they're resold — which is how carmakers comply with privacy laws and make money.

For instance, your car’s maker might collect:

• Your name, address, email address and driver's license number.
• Location data that shows where you are and where you went.
• Biometrics through your car's microphone and camera.
• Voice recordings collected by your car's voice assistant.
• Data synced from your connected devices, like call records, text messages or contacts.

Privacy4Cars offers tools for consumers, too, including a free privacy tool. Using just your VIN, this tool helps show you who your vehicle’s information is shared with — think insurance companies, the government and data brokers.

✅ Go here to enter your VIN. Depending on your car’s make and model, it can be pretty shocking.

One of my team members drives a Hyundai

According to the Vehicle Privacy Report’s rundown of the car, Hyundai collects information to predict drivers’ "preferences, characteristics, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, or similar behavioral information." Uh, OK.

The carmaker shares and sells that info to its parent companies, subsidiaries, sister companies and service providers. That includes analytics partners, advertising agencies and social networks. Sheesh.

You can delete all that data

Privacy4Cars also has a free iOS and Android app. With it, you can wipe out data collected by your vehicle about you, including your synced phone book, call logs, text messages, navigation history, home address, garage door codes, passwords, biometrics and vehicle credentials.

My recommendation: Use Privacy4Cars after every rental and before selling, turning in or trading your vehicle. No, they didn’t ask me to tell you this; it’s just a smart privacy step.

🥖 One for the road … I keep getting the same French Uber driver: Serge Pricing. I know, sorry.

• Hand massager: Better circulation, less stiffness and soothing for arthritis and joint pain.
• Condiment containers (17% off): Never spill a drop of salad dressing again!
• Cargo net for your car: Keep your trunk neat and organized.
• Hat organizer: Store your ballcaps vertically. Genius!
• Magnetic cable managers (41% off): Silicone so you can use them again and again.

⚠️ We’re all screwed: Oh, no … 26 billion personal records were leaked from X, Dropbox, LinkedIn and others in what’s being called the “Mother of all Breaches.” Use Cybernews’ data leak checker to see if that’s you (chances are, it is), then change your passwords ASAP.

Behind the scenes: You’ve likely never heard of them, but actual human raters from Appen ensure Google’s search results are top-quality. Appen’s contract, however, is up in March, so if you think Google Search is bad now, just wait.

No news is new news: Meta has ditched the news big time. Mother Jones' traffic from Facebook, for example, is down 99%. After years of PR headaches, Facebook is chasing "friendlier" content, leaving news and other pubs scrambling for traffic. Hello, layoffs!

🖨️ Ink-sanity: HP has a new excuse for blocking non-HP ink cartridges: Viruses! OK, its CEO admits there haven’t been any real-life hacks yet. I call BS, but nice try.

Holy moley: Pastor Eli Regalado and his wife raised $3.2 million with their “God-approved” crypto, INDXcoin. Of that, $1.3 million went to earthly pleasures like a Range Rover, fancy handbags and boat rentals. They’ve been charged with fraud. Talk about divine judgment.

I just don’t see it: A middle school in Graham, North Carolina, removed bathroom mirrors to stop TikTok-obsessed kids from spending so long filming videos. Parents have a better idea: Ban the phones instead.

Knot too shabby: Meet Migaloo M5. The world's first super-submarine is a 543-foot underwater palace that fits 20 guests and 40 crew. It has a pool, cinema, wine cellar and helipad. Price? $2 billion. Poor Jeff Bezos … His lame mega-yacht cost a quarter of that.

📉 “Attn: Your credit score dropped 50 points.” If you got this text, ignore it and don’t click the link. A real credit-monitoring company won’t send junk like this.

Just an FYI: IDrive was a longtime sponsor of The Kim Komando Show. As a heads up, they’re no longer a sponsor.

📲 Apple iOS 17.3 just dropped with a standout new feature called “Stolen Device Protection.” Instead of letting a thief use your lock screen passcode to change all your settings, the phone requires your fingerprint or Face ID. Turn it on! I did.

• To update, open Settings and tap General > Software Update > Install Now. You might see Download and Install. If so, tap that to download the update, enter your passcode and select Install Now.
• Now, go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode. Enter your passcode and tap Turn On Protection under “Stolen Device Protection.”

PSA: Never steal. The government hates competition.

104: That’s how many people-search and data-broker sites Incogni* has removed my personal info from. Get your privacy back — try it yourself with promo code KIM60 for, you guessed it, 60% off.

Nifty shifty: Ctrl + Shift + T reopens the last closed tab in your web browser in Windows. Incredibly useful if you accidentally close a tab. On a Mac, use Cmd + Shift + T.

🛑 Small-biz warning: Passwords matter more if you have financial info and customer details to protect. Never, ever use a variation of your business name, address or dates like your birthday or the day you started your business.

Stacks on stacks: Coming soon to Google Photos for Android are photo stacks. Pictures you took around the same time or at once (like a doggy photoshoot or your breakfast) get bunched together. The number in the corner tells you how many pictures you snapped. Nice.

That’s why you’re coughing: Monitor air quality without downloading anything new. Open up Google Maps and search for your location. Click the Air Quality option in the menu.

After 20-plus years operating a business in the radio and tech industry, I know you have to let the data do the talking. The numbers show you where your company excels — and where it’s not doing so great. I wish someone had told me this a long time ago.

You can’t run a successful business with Quicken. Sure, you get a basic P&L, but that’s not enough. You need more than just accounting software.

That’s what is so great about NetSuite by Oracle. In one easy-to-use dashboard, you see everything that makes your business tick — revenue, inventory, sales, employees, expenses, you name it. Over 37,000 businesses rely on NetSuite.

A little cheesy but still grate.

The answer: D.) The first Mac sold for $2,495 in 1984, the equivalent of around $7,400 today. By 1985, consumers had purchased 372,000 Macs. In 2023, Apple sold 22 million Macs, including iMac desktops and MacBooks. Of course, Apple sells a ton of iPhones and Apple watches. There’s no way they could have called it the “iWatch” — it sounds way too creepy.

🤏 A few of you have said, “Kim, this email is getting a little long,” so I’m shortening things! Keep passing along your suggestions, folks. That’s how we make this great newsletter even better together. Thank you for being you! — Kim