The Trump administration’s newly launched White House App is under scrutiny after a software developer claimed to have found embedded code that tracks users’ precise GPS coordinates every 4.5 minutes and automatically syncs them to a third-party server. The claim, posted on 28 March 2026 by the X account @Thereallo1026, has drawn nearly 260,000 views and prompted questions about data collection practices in government-operated applications.

The post included what appeared to be decompiled source code from the app, revealing what the user described as OneSignal’s ‘full GPS pipeline compiled in.’ According to the post, the code showed the app ‘polling your location every 4.5 minutes, syncing your exact coordinates to a third-party server.’ The White House has not publicly responded to the specific technical claims.

  • Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    Lol I remember watching that YouTube video about a north Korean phone that took screenshots every few minutes.

    Freedom™

      • lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works
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        3 months ago

        The key difference is, instead of your data winding up in an oppressive, kleptocratic surveillance state, it goes to the oppressive, kleptocratic adtech industry (dw, your data is also still sent to the oppressive, kleptocratic surveillance state,)

        • edgemaster72@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          dw, your data is also still sent to the oppressive, kleptocratic surveillance state

          But the good news is the government has to pay them our tax dollars to spy on us instead of getting it for free or using that money to benefit the populace. Yay dystopia!

        • fartographer@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          dw, your data is also still sent to the oppressive, kleptocratic surveillance state

          Oh thank God. You had me worried for a second there that Daddy Freedom and Mommy Liberty didn’t care about me anymore.

    • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I thought of the one app India was trying to force all phones sold in the country to have. That one was also tracking locations.

  • Obinice@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    The funny thing is, THIS seems to be the part the media is rolling with, but if you read the full details about what it can do and how poorly it’s made, tracking your location is only one thing to worry about (though it’s a big one to be fair).

    E.g The potential for running arbitrary malicious code if one random dude on the internet (who is unrelated to the US government) has his GitHub account compromised? Daaaaaaawg

    • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      It was already a no from me, dawg, you don’t have to convince me.

      No, but seriously. Everything he tries to implement is like 90’S cartoon level evil and sloppy. I bet we could get him monologuing.

  • bluetoofs@lemmy.worlddeleted by creator
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    3 months ago

    Wow, you just can’t make this stuff up. The divide between the dumbest of Americans and normal/intelligent people couldn’t be wider right now.

    …because we know whose phones this shit is on.

  • auntieclokwise@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    If you’re stupid enough to install that on your phone, you deserve whatever it is that you get. I’m surprised it doesn’t periodically send your browsing history to the fuhrer for inspection. Wouldn’t want those sheep getting the wrong thoughts.

  • modus@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Wtf is a White House app good for? Streamlining his mental diahrea into your hands?

  • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    One thing I don’t think has got enough attention is the fact that it does a fetch from Truth Social as well, which means Trump personally gets at least some indirect data on the app’s users on a server that isn’t even slightly controlled or contracted by the government.