Good Monday Morning

It’s August 11th.

Vladimir Putin travels to Alaska on Friday to meet with President Trump and possibly Volodymyr Zelenskyy. More than a quarter-million troops from both sides and 13,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion over three years ago.

Today’s Spotlight is 1,064 words, about 4 minutes to read.

3 Headlines to Know Now: The Google Has a Bad Month Edition

St. Paul Hit by a Cyberattack

A late July cyberattack has kept city systems in St. Paul offline for over two weeks, with a 90-day state of emergency and the National Guard still on the job.

Instagram Map Sparks a Safety Panic

Instagram’s new map feature can share your last active location with selected followers. Meta says it is opt in only. Confusion and privacy fears have led bipartisan senators to call for it to be shut down.

Alexa+ Rolls Out With Smarts and a Price Tag

Alexa Plus is free for Amazon Prime members and about $20 per month for others. It offers more natural conversations and can manage tasks like calendars and smart home routines.

Trump’s Tariff Map Turns Red

George’s Data Take

Reminder: U.S. importers pay the tariffs up front, often passing the cost to consumers through higher prices. The auto industry is already that warning prices are headed up despite their covering previous tariffs. At 50% increases, Brazil sends the U.S. coffee, crude oil, soybeans, sugar, beef, and aircraft, while India’s biggest exports are electronics, pharmaceuticals, and gems.

Safes Cracked in Safes

Running Your Business

Hackers have cracked small personal-style electronic safes often found in homes, offices, and hotels in seconds by exploiting hidden locksmith backdoors and debug ports.

Silver Beacon Behind the Scenes

People who want to subvert a system always start by asking “How” and then move to “What if.”

That is exactly what happened to Securam ProLogic locks with a digital locksmith open feature. Hackers at a convention cracked that feature, then uncovered a second exploit. Planning for bad actors has to be part of your process from day one.

ChatGPT 5 is Coming, Your Mouse is Going

Chat GPT Takes The Lead

OpenAI introduced GPT 5 on August 7. It now runs as the default system for all ChatGPT users. GPT 5 uses internal routing to match a query with the right process. OpenAI founder Sam Altman describes it as a PhD level expert that is practical for daily use.

It’s not. At least not for most people.

But this model works faster than previous versions. 

It answers with more accuracy and handles complex reasoning more effectively. It also shows gains in areas such as coding, science, and health topics. Analysts view this as an upgrade rather than a transformation. 

Rival systems still win in some specialized tests. Anthropic’s Claude has long held the second spot, but this is now a three company race with Google’s Gemini gaining popularity through its search integration.

New Personalities Cause Tension

ChatGPT added four personality settings called Cynic, Robot, Listener, and Nerd. These adjust tone without changing the model.

Change still sparks outrage regardless of the system, however.

Many people disliked losing access to GPT 4o Users valued its emotional tone and memory of past interactions. The complaints pushed OpenAI to allow paying users to restore GPT 4o within one day of the launch. Many accepted that swap, trading faked emotions for more errors.

The shift to GPT 5 shows OpenAI’s new focus on simplicity. The company believes a single smart default will keep people engaged. The coding and data people seem happy with the changes. The backlash shows just how strongly users connect with the style of a model, and changing that connection without warning can damage trust.

Microsoft Looks to 2030

Microsoft is a big part of the ChatGPT picture, having invested nearly $14 billion in developer OpenAI. They’ve integrated the ChatGPT-powered Copilot throughout Windows, Office, and Bing.

Microsoft leaders now say they expect voice commands and gestures to replace most keyboard and mouse use by 2030. They see AI agents managing schedules and handling messages. The company is also working on security that can resist quantum attacks, which don’t exist yet, but whose concept worries the entire cybersecurity world.

The move to GPT 5 shows what the brain of future computing might look like. Microsoft’s plan for voice control shows what the body could become. The two trends together hint at a time when talking to a computer will be normal.

AI Joins the Research Game

Practical AI

New AI tools like Gemini Deep Search and ChatGPT Deep Research are handling complex questions with speed and citations, but traditional search is still essential for quick facts and breaking news.

Inside a Job Scam Operation

Protip

A Slate reporter answered a fake recruiter text and followed the scam through every twist. The scheme promised high pay for little work, funneled targets onto encrypted apps, and revealed how a low effort grift can still trap people from any background.

Drug-Price Cuts Over-Promised by 1,500 Percent

Debunking Junk

President Trump is telling audiences and social media followers that prescription drug prices have dropped by 1200 to 1500 percent. Experts say this is mathematically impossible and there is no evidence of dramatic cuts.

Columbia’s Very Funny Look at Nature

Screening Room

WhoFi Turns Your Wi-Fi into a Surveillance Scanner

Science Fiction World

Researchers in Rome created WhoFi, a system that uses AI to read WiFi signal distortions caused by your body to identify you with more than 95 percent accuracy even through walls and in the dark using ordinary routers.

Tiny Patch Matches Hospital BP Accuracy

Tech For Good

UC San Diego Researchers developed a soft skin patch the size of a stamp that uses ultrasound to track blood pressure inside the body with accuracy equal to invasive hospital methods.

The City That Says Stop

Coffee Break

A new Pudding.cool project maps every word seen on New York City streets in 18 years of Google Street View. The most common are stop, no, do not, only, and limit, turning the city into a giant poem of rules, although there are certainly more colorful ones.

Sign of the Times

Good Monday Morning

It’s July 28th. On Friday, the U.S. will levy a 30 percent tariff on imports from most countries unless separate trade deals are finalized. Although American importers are legally on the hook for these duties, countless studies show that the extra costs almost always get passed through to consumers.

Today’s Spotlight is 888 words, about 4 minutes to read.

3 Headlines to Know: The “Google Has a Bad Month” Edition

Jury Slams Google With $314 M Verdict for Siphoning Android User’s Phones

Fourteen million Californians could get paid after a jury ruled Google misused their phone data.

Publishers File EU Antitrust Complaint Over Google’s AI Overviews

A coalition of indie news groups says Google scraped their content for AI summaries without consent and wants it stopped immediately.

Pixel 10 Leaks Force Google to Preview Phone a Month Before Launch

With renders and specs spilling everywhere, Google dropped its own teaser ahead of the August 20 event.

Social Media Now Beats TV as Americans’ Top News Source

By The Numbers

George’s Data Take

Social media users don’t necessarily trust news more, but a majority of them now get their news online.

Facebook has lost some luster and users, but still receives 26% of all that attention. Combined with its Instagram and WhatsApp siblings, Meta has 57% market share of social media news.

Treasury Got Hacked Again. Banks Are Livid

Running Your Business

Two of three hacks against the Treasury Dept. have been made known since December according to a lengthy Bloomberg expose.

Silver Beacon Behind the Scenes

You could make the argument that outside of safety, no systems deserve better protection than the ones governing our financial systems.

Treasury’s cybersecurity budget is $1 billion. Expect regulators and Congress to demand to know what protection that buys.

The Big Government Database

Surveillance tech first deployed on immigrants is now fueling a broader infrastructure to monitor all Americans, with private‑sector firms and government agencies weaving data into ever‑larger centralized systems. 

Immigration Surveillance

Private prison contractor Geo Group has become a Trump administration favorite, securing 87 new federal contracts in the final year of his first term. It has forced phone check‑ins, GPS ankle monitors, smart watches and facial‑recognition apps on immigrants as part of its “Alternatives to Detention” program

Judicial Oversight

Last month a federal judge denied a preliminary injunction blocking the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) founded by Elon Musk from accessing Labor, HHS and CFPB records, ruling that unions failed to prove “irreparable harm.” The court nonetheless warned of “grave” privacy concerns.

Even Libraries?

A nonprofit named SPARC has warned that major scholarly publishers like LexisNexis and Thomson‑Reuters are building “oceanic” security systems that track students, researchers and patrons with contracts that now include ICE and law enforcement agencies.

Dual-Use Threat

A USA Today op‑ed last week by technologist Peyton Hornberger highlights how Palantir and OpenAI are poised to take immigration‑justified surveillance tools and repurpose them for monitoring every citizen. He notes the long Musk‑Thiel alliance from their days as early PayPal executives to Thiel becoming the first outside investor in SpaceX.

Hornberger isn’t alone. The database has been reported on by multiple media organizations including The New York Times and Wired.

Citizen Toolkit

Wired offers a Guide to Protecting Yourself From Government Surveillance, filled with concrete defenses against this surveillance onslaught. Topics include device locks, anonymous browsing, and encrypting your communications. It’s a great read that tells you why and then how.

Warning

Surveillance built for immigrants is coming for everyone. If this is important to you, you should lock down your data now because once these systems are in place, there’s no un‑ringing that bell.

AI Driven Referrals to Websites Jump 357 Percent in a Year

Practical AI

Platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity sent over a billion visits in June as publishers brace for “Google Zero,” the moment search engines answer questions without sending users to other sites.

Instagram Now Lets You Reset Its Algorithm Without Nuking Your Account

Protip

You can now wipe your suggested content and rebuild a smarter, more relevant experience from scratch.

Sen. Mike Lee Pushes Fake Powell Resignation Letter Ahead of Fed Meeting

Debunking Junk

The forged doc claiming Jerome Powell stepped down under Trump pressure spread fast online after it was amplified by Sen. Lee just days before the FOMC meets.

Company Employing Kisscam Couple Hires Coldplay Singer’s Ex for Commercial

Screening Room

Buddhist Prayer Scroll Virtually Unrolled Using X-Rays and AI

Science Fiction World

Scientists in Germany used tomography and AI to digitally unfurl an ancient silk-wrapped scripture from a Mongolian shrine, revealing the mantra “Om mani padme hum” without damaging the relic.

Internet Archive Becomes Official Federal Library for Government Documents

Tech For Good

The digital nonprofit will now serve as a full depository for federal publications—giving public access to primary sources even as the Trump admin erases data elsewhere.

Can You Tell Which AI Fake is Real?

Coffee Break

The NYT tested readers with AI-generated video that fakes news anchors, riots, and even influencers. It’s disturbingly good. Here is a free link to test yourself. 

Sign of the Times

Good Monday Morning

A housekeeping note: starting with this issue, Spotlight will publish two issues per month. While our audience includes digital marketers, this new schedule lets us explore broader trends that affect everyone. I’m excited about the change!

Today’s Spotlight is 1,187 words, about 5 minutes to read.

3 Headlines to Know Now

Microsoft Extends Free Windows 10 Updates

Microsoft will let users keep getting security updates for Windows 10 into 2026 if they sign up for Windows Backup or trade in Microsoft Rewards points. Even “free” security comes with strings attached.

Facebook Wants AI Access to Your Camera Roll, Even For Photos You Have Not Shared

Meta is testing a feature that scans private photos to suggest AI edits, raising fresh questions about how much of your personal data you want feeding any company’s AI engines. That’s a question we tackle today in the Spotlight below.

Amazon Robots Are Taking Over Warehouses While Disabled Workers Say AI Denies Them Fair Treatment

As Amazon nears having more robots than humans in its distribution facilities, disabled corporate employees allege the company’s AI is blocking accommodation requests and silencing organizing efforts. 

GenZ and Millennials Rediscover Direct Mail While Email Stays in the Mix

By The Numbers

George’s Data Take

Boomers and Gen X grew up saturated with direct mail and broadcast ads, leaving them burned out and eager for digital’s novelty when it arrived. 

For younger generations, digital overload has made today’s less frequent, higher-quality direct mail feel unique and worth attention, especially as brands invest more in direct mail efforts to justify its higher cost compared to digital. It’s no longer competing with letters, bills, and reminders in physical mailboxes.

That’s how “junk mail” became premium. 

Hackers Crack McDonald’s AI Hiring Chatbot With Password “123456”

Running Your Business

A weak password and sloppy security at Paradox.ai exposed millions of McDonald’s job applicants’ personal data to hackers who needed nothing more than “123456” to break in.

Silver Beacon Behind The Scenes

Know your data risks, understand your responsibilities, and never forget that in the end, someone will be accountable. Act fast if that’s you. Paradox’s Chief Legal Officer jumped in front of the story and declared, “We own this.”

Odd Ways Your Data is Captured & Sold

When Personal Data Gets Sold in Unexpected Ways

We already know social media sites, credit card companies, grocery stores, and ecommerce platforms share our data. But did you know that 75 percent of the most visited websites in the US and Europe still share personal information with third parties even after users explicitly withdraw consent? 

That unsettling finding comes from Privado.ai’s 2024 State of Website Privacy Report. The report found 76 percent of top US sites ignore “do not sell” signals and 74 percent of EU sites don’t honor opt-in requirements. 

Beyond the usual culprits, your data is being sold in some unusual ways. 

Browser Extensions as hidden trackers

Browser extensions often collect and sell browsing data to third parties, though practices vary widely. One of the most famous examples was a security software tool from Avast that sold user browsing data. The software was exposed in 2020, but it took years for the FTC to settle with the company for a $16.5 million fine last year. Those whose browser histories were sold got nothing.

Not all browser extensions commit fraud, but you should at least look at the privacy policies before allowing something access to everything you do online.

Airline Flight Records Sold to Homeland Security

Major U.S. carriers like Delta and United, through data broker ARC, sold passenger’s names, itineraries and payment details to Customs and Border Protection, part of Homeland Security. 

The airline industry apparently knew that passengers would hate this, so it included specific contract language to prevent CBP from identifying them as the source of the name, financial, and itinerary data. The cost for the first two years was just over $17,000. We know all this because of a FOIA request.

Ad-tech Turned into Intel

It’s not just CBP. The Pentagon and U.S. Intelligence agencies now use commercial ad platforms to locate individuals, including high-profile targets like Vladimir Putin! Here’s how:

Every iPhone and Android has an “anonymous” advertising ID number because earlier tracking systems contained names, email addresses, and other identifying information. Advertising exchanges compile everything you do online under your anonymous advertising ID number. Your location is tied into that ID number, along with other data points that can identify individuals.

Someone traveling from a home address to a business address every day is pretty easily identified if you get access to everything. That’s why my television blares ads for a relatively uncommon medical condition I’ve had for decades while yours doesn’t.

Drones Snapping Your Home For Insurance

Insurers deploy satellite imagery and drones, often without warning, to inspect homes. Expired satellite photos or fuzzy drone images have triggered unfair rate hikes or cancellations. It’s legal and can be used to classify your home’s exterior maintenance or whether you own risky items like ATVs or trampolines.

AI Logs Saved for Legal Battles

The New York Times sued OpenAI for allegedly copying its information. Earlier this year, an order in that case forced OpenAI to preserve ChatGPT conversation logs from over 400 million users, even those who deleted chats. 

OpenAI used a series of legal moves to contend that the requirement was technically and commercially onerous. Their arguments were rejected in late June, which leaves those users wondering just what the delete button accomplished.

So What’s the Takeaway?

Your data isn’t just feeding ads. It’s being traded for surveillance, insurance risk scores, national security intel, and future litigation leverage. While laws lag behind, these emerging practices show we’re living in a new age of data commodification. 

AI Helps Rental Car Companies Spot tiny Dings and Charge You For Them

Practical AI

Hertz and others are rolling out scanners that use high-resolution imaging and AI to detect even small blemishes on vehicles, leaving renters facing unexpected damage bills and new anxiety about parking in any parking lot anywhere.

Stop Meta From Grabbing Your Facebook Photos for AI

Protip

That Meta wanting to use AI on your camera roll story above? We’ve got you covered. 

Lifehacker explains how to block Meta’s new setting that lets it upload and analyze your private camera roll photos for AI features you might not want.

Texas Floods Spark Wild Weather Conspiracies

Debunking Junk

After deadly floods in Texas, conspiracy theories claim cloud seeding triggered the disaster, but scientists say that’s impossible and purely misinformation.

Martha and Snoop go Camping

Screening Room

Flying Platforms to Beam Internet During Disasters

Science Fiction World

A solar-powered blimp from Sceye can hover 60,000 feet up to restore connectivity when disasters knock out networks. That news undoubtedly thrills Elon Musk and his Starlink employees.

Tiny Tech Tackles Big Heart Risks

Tech For Good

Scientists are using nanoparticles to deliver immune-suppressing drugs that slow artery plaque buildup that could help fight heart attacks and strokes.

Google Earth Turns Back Time

Coffee Break

For its 20th birthday, Google Earth is adding historic street view and AI tools so you can explore the past and see how your favorite spots have transformed. Zoom around the globe and revisit the places you love, comparing how they looked twenty years ago to today.

Sign of the Times