Hands-On Tech (Audio)

HOT 282: Why Does Every Gadget Need an App and an Account Now? - Why Your Appliance Wants Your Email

Hands-On Tech (Audio)

Show Notes

In this episode of Hands-On Tech, Mikah answers Joyce's question about why so many everyday smart devices now require downloading an app & creating an account, and how to opt out of sharing personal data without giving up the products' functionality

Send in your questions for Mikah to [email protected], and he'll answer them in a future episode!

Host: Mikah Sargent

Download or subscribe to Hands-On Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-tech

Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts!

Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

More from Hands-On Tech (Audio)

Oct 18, 2026

On this episode of Hands-On Tech, Mikah answers a question from Lyle who wants to know whether a coworker can really tell when he has opened her emails.

Oct 11, 2026

On this week's episode of Hands-On Tech, Clyde, who is shopping for a new phone after his last one died in a sink full of dishwater, asks what an IP68 water resistance rating actually promises, whether it wears off as a phone ages, and what to do in the first few minutes after a phone gets wet.

Oct 4, 2026

On this week's episode of Hands-On Tech, Barry asks whether anything inside a QR code can actually hurt you, or whether the real danger lies somewhere else, and what a person should check before scanning one out in the wild.

Sep 27, 2026

On this week's Hands-On Tech, Lorraine asks Mikah whether her husband or her daughter is right about the difference between shutting down and restarting a Windows PC, and how often she should be restarting her computer and phone.

Sep 20, 2026

In this week's episode of Hands-On Tech, Wendell asks Mikah whether his wife is right that typing into an AI chatbot is no different from a Google search, and wants to know where those conversations go, who can see them, whether they're used for training, and if any settings can turn that off in both ChatGPT and Gemini.

See all episodes →