This week: a price built just for you
Also: laptop specs, slow Wi-Fi, GTA VI malware, plus Google watching Search for your address.
Good morning!
The personalized-pricing story is the one I want you to read this week. Stores can use information about you to decide the price you see. The FTC is now considering what they have to tell you when they do it. Most of the usual advice about clearing cookies barely touches the ways a store can recognize you.
In this issue:
- Are you paying a different price than your neighbor?
- What laptop specs actually matter in 2026?
- Why is my Wi-Fi slow?
- The GTA VI leak. How big leaks become bait.
- Also this week: pricier Amazon devices, a $17 billion Meta settlement, and a check from Disney
- Google will tell you when your address shows up in its search results
- Plus: three scams making the rounds
- And the Scary Headline of the week: the Android app that scans for nudity
Are you paying a different price than your neighbor?
Personalized pricing, sometimes called surveillance pricing, is when a business uses information about you to decide what you pay. Two shoppers can look at the same thing and be shown different prices because the store knows or guesses something different about each of them, often through the account or loyalty number they hand over themselves. The FTC says the practice is not automatically illegal, but hiding a personalized price can be deceptive or unfair. The article tests the usual advice, says what works instead, and walks you to the FTC docket before the comment window closes September 18.
Learn
What laptop specs actually matter in 2026?
If you are shopping for a Windows laptop for everyday use, start with 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD. Look for a 1080p or better IPS screen. Take the full processor model off the tag and search it before you buy, because Core 5 or Ryzen 5 tells you the tier but not how old the chip is. Wi-Fi 7, TOPS numbers and an "AI PC" label matter much less than the memory, storage, processor and screen.
Learn
Run a speed test next to the router, then run it again where things are slow. If it is already slow next to the router, the problem is probably not coverage. If it drops only in the bad room, move the router out of the cabinet or off the floor before you price a mesh kit. The article walks through six checks, including bufferbloat when a big upload ruins the internet for everyone else.
Learn
The GTA VI leak. How big leaks become bait.
The leaked GTA VI clips were real, which made the fake downloads easier to sell. Malwarebytes found sites pretending to host footage or demos that delivered the Vidar password stealer, while another supposed 113GB leak archive was mostly empty data wrapped around a small program that disabled Windows Defender. If somebody in your house wants to see the leak, let them watch the clips on a normal video site. The full Extended Look aired August 27 on Netflix and YouTube, so the real thing is a click away. They do not need a ZIP file, ISO, installer or special player to watch a video.
News
Also this week: pricier Amazon devices, a $17 billion Meta settlement, and a check from Disney
Amazon raised the list prices on several of its own devices, but as of Thursday most of the actual sale prices were still below those new numbers. Meta agreed to pay up to $17 billion over ten years to settle the multistate teen social-media case, with new limits planned for users under 18 in participating states. Disney's $50 million YouTube TV and DirecTV Stream settlement has a September 8 claim deadline. The CPSC also says owners of a KH158 plug-in gas and carbon-monoxide alarm sold under 18 brand names should stop using it because it can fail to sound during a real leak.
News
If you only read one: the personalized-pricing piece. It explains what surveillance pricing is, how a store can recognize you without relying on cookies, and what works instead of the usual advice.
5-Minute Tech Tip
Google's Results about you tool can watch Search for your home address, phone number, email address, driver's license number or Social Security number. Start by searching your own name and town in a private window so you can see what someone else sees. Then set up Results about you with the names and contact information you want Google to watch. When Google finds a match, you can request removal from Search. The original page can still keep the information, so a people-finder listing may need a second removal request at the source.
Fresh Trouble
The Amazon job text. A text from an "Amazon Remote Recruitment Team" offers $100 to $600 a day for about an hour of work and tells you to text another number. Look up any real opening on Amazon's own jobs site instead. (Malwarebytes)
The veterans postcard. A postcard says you or your spouse may qualify for a "Veterans Savings Program," but the FTC says the program does not exist. Benefit questions go to the VA at 1-800-827-1000, not the number on the card. (FTC)
Disaster donation asks. After a hurricane, flood or earthquake, fake charities show up quickly. Find the charity yourself before you donate, and walk away from anyone demanding a gift card, wire transfer or cryptocurrency. (FTC)
Scary Headline of the Week
"Dystopian Android's nude-scanning app keeps reinstalling itself, and Google is opening access to other developers"
SafetyCore is real. Google pushed it to Android phones through Google Play without a normal app install, and it has no icon sitting in your app drawer. Cybernews also reports that some people who removed it later found it installed again.
The function is narrower than the headline makes it sound. SafetyCore provides an on-device classifier that Google Messages can use when Sensitive Content Warnings is turned on. Google says the classification stays on the phone. Its Play listing says SafetyCore itself collects no data and shares no data with third parties.
GrapheneOS has looked at the component too. Its developers say SafetyCore has no way to report your images or its classification result to a service. An app sends content to the local model, gets a classification back, then decides what to do with it.
Google is now building an Android API that lets other apps use the same kind of on-device content classification. That means the same kind of warning can start showing up in other apps. Those apps still need their normal permission to get at the photo or message in the first place.
I still think Google created its own trust problem. A background component that examines sensitive content showed up on people's phones with almost no explanation. When Google wanted a video of your face as an account-recovery backup, setup was optional. You had to turn it on yourself.
Verdict: "nude-scanning app" makes this sound like Google is secretly uploading your photo library. The evidence does not support that. The silent install is fair criticism, and opening the classifier to more apps deserves scrutiny.
Seen a headline this week that scared you? Reply and send it. It might get next week's verdict.
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Have you ever caught a price changing on you, and did you figure out why? Hit reply.
Joel
