Is Your Tech Working for You… or Watching You?

Sam Bushman is joined by NPI marketing admin and musician Jake Oakes for a fast-paced tour through the ways modern tech can either protect you or quietly put you at risk. They start with one of today’s biggest business threats: email and payroll scams that impersonate bosses, HR, and vendors. Sam and Jake walk through practical steps to stop fraud before it happens: like always verifying banking changes by phone (using a trusted number), documenting confirmations in writing, and treating any request for sensitive data as suspicious until proven otherwise. Along the way, they highlight how Network Providers Inc. is trying to "secure, educate, and protect" with webinars, in-person events, and a growing video library to help business owners understand security, endpoints, HIPAA-sensitive environments, and more.From there, the conversation zooms out to the bigger tech picture: phones that are always listening for “Hey Siri” and turning those snippets into eerily targeted ads; AI tools that can summarize everything but still can’t think beyond their training; and the growing temptation to let digital assistants guide every decision. Sam and Jake argue for balance; using AI as a powerful tool without letting it replace real human connection or common sense. They also dig into YouTube’s war on ad blockers, Meta’s profit-from-scammers problem, and Chrome’s new ability to autofill highly sensitive IDs, all through the lens of privacy, morality, and trust. To lighten things up, Sam shares a practical audio upgrade tip: ditching bulky desktop speakers for a sleek solution that transforms your computer into a surprisingly rich media station.