March 27, 2025 • 9 mins
Larry Mendte and Rich DeMuro talk about what you need to do if you have DNA in 23andMe and explains what the Signal app does. Plus, a cool new feature for yout Kindle.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Man, there's a lot in the news about tech this week.
It's perfect right now to talk to Rich DeMuro from
Rich on Tech. You can hear Rich on Tech Sunday
nights from eight to eleven on wor You can also
reach Rich with your own questions to at rich on
Tech on Instagram. Rich, good to talk to you again.
(00:20):
A lot going on. Let's start with Signal. It's so
much in the news right now, whether it's secure, whether
it's not secure. What do you know about Signal?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Well, Signal has been around for a long time. Good
morning to you, by the way, Larry. It's been around
for a long time, and it's known to be the
most secure messaging app out there. There's only a handful
of messaging apps that do what's called end to end encryption.
This means that when you type a message on your device,
nobody can see that message from the moment you type
(00:53):
it to the moment it travels to the other phone.
Now that's a good thing, but what we saw happen
in the guver is that someone was added to a
group message and that's how they were able to see
that message. So it's not as if someone can hack
into this. I mean that's always a possibility. But that's
not what happens here. But what people like about signal,
A lot of journalists use it, a lot of executives,
(01:15):
a lot of people in government because there's not a
lot of data collection happening. The other app that also
uses end to end encryption is WhatsApp, but that's owned
by Meta, which of course brings its own set of
challenges with it.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Would you have to add a person or could a
person break into the conversation.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
No, there's no way someone could break into a conversation.
I mean, there's just everything is possible. But that is
not what happened. You know, here's what happened, Larry. It's
like when you type a message number one. We're all human.
We've all done the thing where you start writing a message,
you press send and you realized, ooh wrong chat. That's
always that's happened to every single one of us. The
(01:55):
other thing that happens is that you start composing the
person's name, and of course we have a bunch of
people in our address book, and you you know, it
auto completes that person and it happens to be the
wrong person. So those are two of the ways that
you might add the wrong person to a group text,
and it happens all the time. I've seen it many
times in my personal life, and it's unfortunate, especially when
(02:18):
the stakes are this high.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, I've done it myself several times, and it's really
embarrassing when you do it to the boss, which by
the way, I have done many many times. Just one
last thing, Mike Waltz says he wasn't in my contact list,
so this had to come from someone else, which means
it would have to be a staffer of Mike Waltz.
(02:44):
If it somehow came from his number or his office,
that's the only way it could be, right.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yes, I mean it's I mean, this person's a journalist
at The Atlantic, so it's not out of the question
that he would be in someone's address book. If my
walt says he wasn't in there in his address book,
either someone else was able to add him to the
group list and that's how he got in, or perhaps
it was a you know, his address book may autocomplete
(03:13):
someone that he's emailed or texted before, and maybe he's
not specifically in that address book. It's tough to tell
because if you use these services, a lot of them
kind of put people in your autocomplete that you may
not specifically have in your address book. So that's another
way that that could have happened.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Well, luckily they have some of the best tech people
in the world right now with Elon Musk and the
Doge team, and they're apparently going to investigate. So we're
all going to find out. Let's talk about the other
big story in the news right now. Twenty three and
meters files for bankruptcy. What is going to happen now
with that DNA that the users contributed on their own volition.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Well, the big question is we don't know what's going
to happen to that DNA. So twenty three and meters
filed for bankruptcy. Like you said, this is a come
that was worth six billion dollars at one point. Now
their stock is under a dollar. And they also had
that security breach back in twenty twenty three which affected
like seven million users. The company's up for sale because
it's under Chapter eleven. And here's the thing. Twenty three
(04:15):
in me has always said, look, we have a pretty
strict privacy policy, but moving forward, any company that purchases
twenty three in me. And if you're buying a company,
what do you want to do with it? You want
to make money off of it. Well, they have this
great genetic database that this new company is going to
try to monetize, and so we don't know what they're
going to do with this genetic data, which is why
(04:38):
a lot of privacy experts are saying, you know what,
the fifteen million people who are in this database, you
probably want to delete your information that includes your genetic data,
saliva samples, health histories, family trees, whatever. You can get
it out of there. You can do this by going
into the settings. But Larry, I know you've been following
the news. Their website was just flooded with p trying
(05:00):
to delete their information. A lot of people weren't able
to complete that transaction because the website was so flooded.
So if you didn't get it the first time, you
can try again. You know.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It's funny. Until I read about this, I didn't even
know Kindle still existed. But now apparently they have an update,
so I guess they do exist. I had a Kindle
a long time ago. But because everybody has handheld phones
or you know, or other devices, they can read anywhere.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Right, Yes, But Larry, the Kindle is the best way
to read books if you want to read. I look,
you know, I love technology, you know, I love the iPhone, Android,
all the different tablets out there. But if you want
to set your life to distraction free mode and actually
read a book, and you're not going to do it
in a physical book, because I try that, And I'll
(05:48):
tell Larry, when was the last time you read a
physical like handheld book? Oh long time ago, a couple
of years ago. The Kindle is a much better experience.
It's backlit, you can change the text if you've got tired,
older eyes, that's much easier to make that font bigger.
It's lightweight in your hand, so and you can read
it in any light. So I love the Kindle. I
(06:10):
read mine every single day. And yes, so they are
still available, very popular. And I think the screen is
easier on the eyes than something like a Kindle or
an iPad or an iPhone screen, because we're looking at
those all day. This is a bit different. It looks
more like the printed page.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I see a sponsorship coming, I see a sponsorship for
Kindle case.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I mean, look it, it's not a new concept. I mean,
believe me. I talk about this stuff on my radio show.
It's like, I still love the physical bookstore because I
love books. I love reading. The problem is, you know,
we've moved into modern times where a book is great,
little paperback, it's simple, but if you're traveling on a trip,
it's like that's one heavy thing you have to pack
(06:51):
in your back, right, and so a kindle is much lighter. Anyway,
I say all that because they did add a new
software feature. They've gotten rid of physical buttons on the kindles,
but they did add a new software future that lets
you double tap the actual physical side or back of
the kindle to turn a page, which you know, might
be helpful for some folks that don't like the swipe
(07:11):
or scroll that you have to do on the screen
by touching it.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I want to get this last story in because you
used a new image upgrade for chat gpt to do
a really nice job of doing a mente in the
morning with my picture. But I want to know why
yours look so much better than mine, and one of
them that you gave to me, I look good, but
(07:34):
it looks like I'm eighty in the picture. The black
and white one.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Look, yeah, the film Noir. Really, I did three of
them for you. So the story is that chatchybt OpenAI
improved their image generation, which you know, this stuff is incredible.
But of course I am sympathetic to the artists out
there because it's gotten so good. This last update that
it is scary for the future of people that make
(08:00):
a living creating art because I was able to take
a picture of you advertising your show on woar and
not only did it get you right, but it also
got the text right on the image, which is something
that all of these AI generators have struggled with in
the past. So now you can do logos, you can
do diagrams, you can change a picture into any scene
(08:23):
that you want. So if you love Thomas Kincaid, if
you love Picasso, you can upload a picture and it
will transform it into that style instantly with eerie accuracy.
And the one I did of you with a sitcom
style is I think perfections. It captured kind of that
feeling of like a fun nineties or eighties sitcom, and
(08:44):
I thought it was really really good.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah, it well, it got the eye cooler wrong, but
other than that, it was really good. I like yours
the cartoon version. I really like that a lot. I
wish you would have done one of those for me anyway,
Thanks so much, Rich de Muro. You can hear him
this weekend on woo on rich on Tech from eight
to eleven, and also you can reach out to them
eight to eleven on Sunday night, by the way, and
(09:08):
you can reach out to him at rich on Tech
on Instagram. Rich thanks a lot. Talk to you again
next week.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Thanks Larry, have a great weekend you too.
Man, there's a lot in the news about tech this week.
It's perfect right now to talk to Rich DeMuro from
Rich on Tech. You can hear Rich on Tech Sunday
nights from eight to eleven on wor You can also
reach Rich with your own questions to at rich on
Tech on Instagram. Rich, good to talk to you again.
(00:20):
A lot going on. Let's start with Signal. It's so
much in the news right now, whether it's secure, whether
it's not secure. What do you know about Signal?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Well, Signal has been around for a long time. Good
morning to you, by the way, Larry. It's been around
for a long time, and it's known to be the
most secure messaging app out there. There's only a handful
of messaging apps that do what's called end to end encryption.
This means that when you type a message on your device,
nobody can see that message from the moment you type
(00:53):
it to the moment it travels to the other phone.
Now that's a good thing, but what we saw happen
in the guver is that someone was added to a
group message and that's how they were able to see
that message. So it's not as if someone can hack
into this. I mean that's always a possibility. But that's
not what happens here. But what people like about signal,
A lot of journalists use it, a lot of executives,
(01:15):
a lot of people in government because there's not a
lot of data collection happening. The other app that also
uses end to end encryption is WhatsApp, but that's owned
by Meta, which of course brings its own set of
challenges with it.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Would you have to add a person or could a
person break into the conversation.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
No, there's no way someone could break into a conversation.
I mean, there's just everything is possible. But that is
not what happened. You know, here's what happened, Larry. It's
like when you type a message number one. We're all human.
We've all done the thing where you start writing a message,
you press send and you realized, ooh wrong chat. That's
always that's happened to every single one of us. The
(01:55):
other thing that happens is that you start composing the
person's name, and of course we have a bunch of
people in our address book, and you you know, it
auto completes that person and it happens to be the
wrong person. So those are two of the ways that
you might add the wrong person to a group text,
and it happens all the time. I've seen it many
times in my personal life, and it's unfortunate, especially when
(02:18):
the stakes are this high.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yeah, I've done it myself several times, and it's really
embarrassing when you do it to the boss, which by
the way, I have done many many times. Just one
last thing, Mike Waltz says he wasn't in my contact list,
so this had to come from someone else, which means
it would have to be a staffer of Mike Waltz.
(02:44):
If it somehow came from his number or his office,
that's the only way it could be, right.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yes, I mean it's I mean, this person's a journalist
at The Atlantic, so it's not out of the question
that he would be in someone's address book. If my
walt says he wasn't in there in his address book,
either someone else was able to add him to the
group list and that's how he got in, or perhaps
it was a you know, his address book may autocomplete
(03:13):
someone that he's emailed or texted before, and maybe he's
not specifically in that address book. It's tough to tell
because if you use these services, a lot of them
kind of put people in your autocomplete that you may
not specifically have in your address book. So that's another
way that that could have happened.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Well, luckily they have some of the best tech people
in the world right now with Elon Musk and the
Doge team, and they're apparently going to investigate. So we're
all going to find out. Let's talk about the other
big story in the news right now. Twenty three and
meters files for bankruptcy. What is going to happen now
with that DNA that the users contributed on their own volition.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Well, the big question is we don't know what's going
to happen to that DNA. So twenty three and meters
filed for bankruptcy. Like you said, this is a come
that was worth six billion dollars at one point. Now
their stock is under a dollar. And they also had
that security breach back in twenty twenty three which affected
like seven million users. The company's up for sale because
it's under Chapter eleven. And here's the thing. Twenty three
(04:15):
in me has always said, look, we have a pretty
strict privacy policy, but moving forward, any company that purchases
twenty three in me. And if you're buying a company,
what do you want to do with it? You want
to make money off of it. Well, they have this
great genetic database that this new company is going to
try to monetize, and so we don't know what they're
going to do with this genetic data, which is why
(04:38):
a lot of privacy experts are saying, you know what,
the fifteen million people who are in this database, you
probably want to delete your information that includes your genetic data,
saliva samples, health histories, family trees, whatever. You can get
it out of there. You can do this by going
into the settings. But Larry, I know you've been following
the news. Their website was just flooded with p trying
(05:00):
to delete their information. A lot of people weren't able
to complete that transaction because the website was so flooded.
So if you didn't get it the first time, you
can try again. You know.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It's funny. Until I read about this, I didn't even
know Kindle still existed. But now apparently they have an update,
so I guess they do exist. I had a Kindle
a long time ago. But because everybody has handheld phones
or you know, or other devices, they can read anywhere.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Right, Yes, But Larry, the Kindle is the best way
to read books if you want to read. I look,
you know, I love technology, you know, I love the iPhone, Android,
all the different tablets out there. But if you want
to set your life to distraction free mode and actually
read a book, and you're not going to do it
in a physical book, because I try that, And I'll
(05:48):
tell Larry, when was the last time you read a
physical like handheld book? Oh long time ago, a couple
of years ago. The Kindle is a much better experience.
It's backlit, you can change the text if you've got tired,
older eyes, that's much easier to make that font bigger.
It's lightweight in your hand, so and you can read
it in any light. So I love the Kindle. I
(06:10):
read mine every single day. And yes, so they are
still available, very popular. And I think the screen is
easier on the eyes than something like a Kindle or
an iPad or an iPhone screen, because we're looking at
those all day. This is a bit different. It looks
more like the printed page.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
I see a sponsorship coming, I see a sponsorship for
Kindle case.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I mean, look it, it's not a new concept. I mean,
believe me. I talk about this stuff on my radio show.
It's like, I still love the physical bookstore because I
love books. I love reading. The problem is, you know,
we've moved into modern times where a book is great,
little paperback, it's simple, but if you're traveling on a trip,
it's like that's one heavy thing you have to pack
(06:51):
in your back, right, and so a kindle is much lighter. Anyway,
I say all that because they did add a new
software feature. They've gotten rid of physical buttons on the kindles,
but they did add a new software future that lets
you double tap the actual physical side or back of
the kindle to turn a page, which you know, might
be helpful for some folks that don't like the swipe
(07:11):
or scroll that you have to do on the screen
by touching it.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I want to get this last story in because you
used a new image upgrade for chat gpt to do
a really nice job of doing a mente in the
morning with my picture. But I want to know why
yours look so much better than mine, and one of
them that you gave to me, I look good, but
(07:34):
it looks like I'm eighty in the picture. The black
and white one.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Look, yeah, the film Noir. Really, I did three of
them for you. So the story is that chatchybt OpenAI
improved their image generation, which you know, this stuff is incredible.
But of course I am sympathetic to the artists out
there because it's gotten so good. This last update that
it is scary for the future of people that make
(08:00):
a living creating art because I was able to take
a picture of you advertising your show on woar and
not only did it get you right, but it also
got the text right on the image, which is something
that all of these AI generators have struggled with in
the past. So now you can do logos, you can
do diagrams, you can change a picture into any scene
(08:23):
that you want. So if you love Thomas Kincaid, if
you love Picasso, you can upload a picture and it
will transform it into that style instantly with eerie accuracy.
And the one I did of you with a sitcom
style is I think perfections. It captured kind of that
feeling of like a fun nineties or eighties sitcom, and
(08:44):
I thought it was really really good.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah, it well, it got the eye cooler wrong, but
other than that, it was really good. I like yours
the cartoon version. I really like that a lot. I
wish you would have done one of those for me anyway,
Thanks so much, Rich de Muro. You can hear him
this weekend on woo on rich on Tech from eight
to eleven, and also you can reach out to them
eight to eleven on Sunday night, by the way, and
(09:08):
you can reach out to him at rich on Tech
on Instagram. Rich thanks a lot. Talk to you again
next week.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Thanks Larry, have a great weekend you too.
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