Joel Folgner - Fresh From Cache

Two identical young women stand face to face, foreheads nearly touching, staring at each other

Learn

How to get a deepfake of you taken down

The full platform-by-platform companion to our deepfake explainer: where the real removal paths are, what each report form actually covers, and what to save before you file anything.

newsletter

The sketchy hospital letter that turned out to be real, a deepfake you can't report, and the Windows bug eating your drive

Also in this issue: what data brokers actually sell, the password habit worth one evening, and a five-minute trick for copying text out of a photo.

A robot vacuum sitting on a hardwood floor, photographed in black and white

Learn

A Shark vacuum flaw is still open. Here's what yours knows about you.

A researcher pulled a live camera feed, a floor plan, and a Wi-Fi password off a Shark robot vacuum he didn't own. Shark hasn't fixed it. Here's what every robot vacuum collects, and what you can do about it.

A hand holding a Samsung Galaxy phone, seen from the back.

News

Samsung killed its texting app, but your texts are fine.

Samsung Messages stopped working July 6 on newer Galaxy phones. Nothing is broken, your old texts are not gone, and the switch takes about ten minutes.

A child and an adult flipping through a printed photo album together.

Learn

I lost ten years of photos. Now I print a photo book every January.

Half an hour in January, and a printed book of your whole year shows up at your door. I started because I lost a decade of pictures.

A woman sits cross-legged on a couch, reading through paper statements with a laptop open on her lap.

News

That sketchy letter from your hospital might be real

Rochester patients got a real breach notice with the wrong hospital name on it. Many threw it away.

Double exposure portrait of a man lit in red and blue, his face overlapping a second ghosted copy of itself

Learn

What do you do when an AI deepfake has your face?

A New Orleans doctor spent months trying to get fake AI ads of himself taken down. What worked, what didn't, and why the settings you've heard about wouldn't have helped.

Fresh from Cache 5-Minute Tech Tip: can your phone copy text out of a photo?

Learn

Your phone can copy text out of any photo

The two-minute trick that ends retyping wifi passwords, codes, and recipes off a screen.

A hand holding a smartphone with the Instagram app open on screen.

News

The Meta AI panic is over, but turn off this lingering setting.

Meta pulled the feature that let anyone make AI images from your public Instagram photos. The setting that fed it is still on by default. Here is how to turn it off.

A human figure formed from thousands of scattered red line fragments against a pale blue sky

Learn

Data brokers have a file on you. California is making them delete it.

Companies you've never dealt with sell lists of who's pregnant, who has Alzheimer's, and who might fall for a scam. Starting August 1, Californians can make them delete it. There are steps for the rest of us, too.

newsletter

The parental controls that fail, Amazon's Starlink rival, and a VPN warning

Also in this issue: the Windows rewind button, who answers for a chatbot, and a five-minute email fix.

A grid of identical blue padlocks on a soft pink background.

Learn

Start using a password manager

One password used everywhere is one key to every lock. A password manager fixes that, and starting is easier than you think.