Friday, November 14, 2025

LG ThinQ App Notification Advertisement

I let our LG Washer-Dryer connect to Wi-Fi, but blocked its access to the Internet. I don't want it communicating with whatever cloud service they run, I just hoped there would be a local web page to scrape or some other port open so I could build a "Send a Signal message when the dryer finishes" service.

Alas, no, it only makes outgoing connections to its cloud service. I'm not ready to commit the time to trick it into communicating with something I develop.

Android screenshot with a notification from the LG Thin-Q app reading: Black Friday prices guaranteed, TV + soundbar or xboom speaker bundle. Exclusive to ...

Installing the app was required to get the unit to connect to Wi-fi. I had blocked the app's Location permission so they can't sell my data to an aggregator, denied the Microphone permission, and took away Camera and Nearby Devices after it scanned the barcode on the washer/dryer.

Now this. It sends advertisements in an Android notification.

I do appreciate some Internet of Things devices. I like being able to graph production data from the rooftop solar panels over time, and the status of the home's battery, for example. But so much of IoT is just in service to enshittification. It is maddening.




LG, if you're listening: I'm sure you track the number of people who click on that notification, maybe with some attempt to estimate conversions and attribute revenue. You need to also track the loss of goodwill.

I rage-uninstalled the app right after taking this screenshot, you need to correlate app store install metrics with when your ad campaigns run. That should feed in somehow to a loss of future revenue estimate, by souring attitudes amongst your installed base.

Lighting goodwill on fire to generate heat can result in revenue, but not without a cost.

Monday, November 10, 2025

Hannover Stadtarchiv geöffnet

The Personenstandsgesetz (PStG) specifies the privacy protection periods for civil records in Germany, after which the records move to an archive where they become publicly available for anyone to access.

  • 110 years after a birth
  • 80 years after a marriage
  • 30 years after a death

The Hannover Stadtarchiv closed in March of 2025 to move to a new building. The archive had gradually fallen behind: where requests in 2023 took about a week to receive a response, requests in 2024 routinely took several months.

I sent a request on the day the archive re-opened on November 3, and received a response today on November 10. The queue may grow as the archive resumes its normal operation, but the initial impression is much improved responsiveness.

Sunday, November 9, 2025

Android Airtag Detection

Android notification screen reads: Tracker Traveling With You. Unknown Apple Airtag detected. The owner of this tracker can see its location.

I really do appreciate that recent Android releases notice and notify a user when an Airtag is accompanying them. Stalking via surreptitious Airtag is a real thing which happens.

One might think that the specific phrasing of "unknown Apple Airtag" implies the existence of a known Apple Airtag, but if such functionality exists I have not found it. I would really love to have a "it's ok, that one is mine" function to suppress repeated notifications about the Airtag in my luggage.