It’s a terrific Tuesday! In 2021, a piece of digital artwork was sold at auction for $69.3 million. Was the technology behind this sale that took the art world by storm … 3D printing, holography, augmented reality or non-fungible tokens? The answer is at the end.

Gear up for a quick and snappy tech journey — no algorithms, just the perfect byte-sized wisdom to outsmart your peers. Ready to launch? Let's go! — Kim

The future of flight is here and it’s not jetpacks — it’s in-air surveillance. If you thought the most invasive thing that could happen on a plane was the person in front of you reclining, think again. 

Airlines already collect and track your data, including:

1. Booking details, like your name, email address, phone number, passport details and payment information. The weight of your bag (and you, if you fly Air New Zealand) is tracked, too.
2. Frequent flyer programs, including your travel patterns, seat selections, meal choices and other preferences. 
3. Onboard Wi-Fi usage, primarily the sites you visit and how much time you spend online. 

Plus, airlines also track your customer service requests, car rentals and more. Some airports even use facial recognition.

Now, airlines are launching data-hungry “features” to track:

• What you drink or eat in-flight and when your beverage is empty. This way, flight attendants can come prepared with refills. Nice, right? Airline food is terrible; it’s so plane.
• Your personal flight history and complaints for attendants to see if you’ll be a good passenger or not. Yup, you’re entering the judgment zone.
• Your in-flight viewing preferences based on how you use seatback displays to shop, watch shows or get info.

Airlines claim this data collection will provide a better experience for passengers, but is the extra convenience really worth all that tracking?

Why so focused on flyer data?

It’s all about the money. Airlines can save big bucks by rationing out only the food and drinks data tells them passengers want. But it gets more cutthroat: They can also prioritize frequent flyers and give less to passengers who don’t pay premium prices.

Plus, there’s always a possibility an airline or its vendors will repackage your data and use or sell it for marketing purposes. Those are not the kind of frequent flyer points I want to earn.

So what can you do?

Secure your digital baggage

You can ask the airlines to remove your data. It’s a complicated, frustrating process, especially if you live outside of California, Colorado or Virginia. These states have consumer privacy laws in place. No matter where you live, start by calling the airline’s customer service team and asking them how to delete your data. 

You can also reduce your in-flight digital footprint by downloading movies and music ahead of time on your personal devices, like an Amazon Kindle.

🥶 Tip in a tip: I never get ice on an airplane. It’s made from the plane's tap water coming from a water tank that’s rarely cleaned. Yup, it’s a bacteria-breeding container.

Divine intervention: It was bound to happen — AI gets religion. Twitch users can now seek guidance from AI Jesus. Available 24/7, the chatbot dubbed “Ask Jesus” answers user questions like, “Should we love our enemies?” or “How can I get a girlfriend?” It’s just asinine for people to mock religion and waste time like this.

📶 Push it to the limit: Hitting your data limit is always a pain. Well, the FCC is looking into data caps and why internet service providers still impose them. These data limits aren’t necessary anymore. The FCC wants to hear your data cap stories here. Go ahead, vent away!

The end is near: Windows 10 won’t receive any more updates. While it hasn’t kicked the bucket just yet, all support will end on Oct. 14, 2023. Need a new laptop? Take our laptop finder quiz.

Disgusting tale: After a three-week search, a missing 14-year-old girl was found living in a 41-year-old man's home. Authorities say he coaxed her there through a dating app. Horrifying. If you have a tween or teen in your life, share this story and talk to them about it. Kids need digital smarts. 

🍕 Domi doesn’t know: Got a pizza craving but no exact address? Domino's has your back with its new Pinpoint Delivery feature. Whether you’re chilling at the beach or having a picnic in the park, just drop a pin on the app's map and boom — pizza is on its way. 

Bond bandits: Banks are hitting pause on cashing U.S. savings bonds, duped by a wave of fakes. Crafty scammers are cashing in on this trick, leading to a $50 million loss nationwide. Tip: TreasuryDirect.gov is the only place to buy a bond online. Anywhere else is a scam.

Put your credit card away: Looking for a new iPhone? Don’t buy one until September. That’s when the new iPhone is slated to ship with a better screen, camera and USB-C connector. Other items to wait on? Apple Watch, AirPods and iMac. New versions come out later this year, just in time for holiday shopping.

📺 What did they say? Find yourself turning on captions? You’re not alone. More than 57% of people surveyed say they use subtitles. Watch this super-interesting video about why we’re all watching with subtitles on.

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.

Find yourself turning to Google for answers to life's most profound questions? You're not alone. A new survey revealed 21% of people can’t go a day without asking Google a question — and many of us get pretty philosophical with our favorite search engine.

Five of the most popular ‘existential questions’ to Google:

• Why is the sky blue?
• What do dreams mean?
• What is the meaning of life?
• Who am I?
• Why am I so tired?

All great questions. But do we really expect Google to have the answers? And why do we ask Google in the first place?

What is love? (Google, don’t hurt me …)

Some psychologists believe it's simply human nature to need to know what's going on in the world. Googling things like "Will everything be OK?" helps us feel less alone.

Researchers also found we turn to Google for the big questions we feel we can't ask someone else when we want unbiased answers and, of course, when we're just plain bored.

😂 I Googled “lost medieval servant boy.” The result was, “This page cannot be found.”

Don't get trapped in the Googleplex

The vast majority of people (96%, actually) depend on Google when they need cold, hard facts. But it’s important to practice safe Googling. Avoid these pitfalls to keep yourself sane and grounded:

• Google's Sponsored Results section is known to contain a scam or two — click with caution.
• Avoid commonly scammed search terms, like “how to make money online.”
• Don't make WebMD the substitute for your doctor. 

✅ Want to keep your uber-deep convos private? This article shows you how to stop your devices from listening to your every word.

Maybe you keep your computer browser nice and tidy (good for you!), but I bet your phone’s browser is a complete mess. Those tabs running in the background eat up valuable memory. There’s an easier fix than closing tabs one at a time.

On iPhone:

Open Safari. Tap and hold the icon that looks like two overlapping squares. From the pop-up, choose Close All Tabs. Done! 

On Android:

It’s even easier if you use Chrome. Just say, “Hey, Google, close all tabs.” If you’re using a different browser, there’s usually a menu in the top right corner. Look for the Close All Tabs option. That’s it!

🏁 Speed Rx: Do this once a week to keep your phone’s performance top-notch.

Losing everything on your devices is heartbreaking. Think about all you would miss.

Don’t leave it to chance! Take the time to back them up the right way. My pick is IDrive. It’s safe, fast and easy. You can back up all your devices — iPhone, Android, Mac, PC — to one account and access your stuff from anywhere.

When you use my name, Kim, at checkout, you get 90% off your first year. What a deal.

Fun fact: The Zzyzx exit (pronounced zei-zix) is two hours outside Las Vegas in San Bernardino County, California.

🎨 The answer: “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” by Mike Winkelmann (aka Beeple) was sold at Christie's in March 2021 for $69.3 million. But “Everydays” is a purely digital piece of art and was sold as a non-fungible token, or NFT. Whoever bought it got ripped off.

The whole NFT rage is over. Why? Find an image online, hover over it, right-click and select “Save image as” instead … for free.

🌍 That’s a wrap on our tech adventure today. Appreciate you joining the ride! Share the greatest tech newsletter in the world with your buddies by inviting them to sign up. — Kim