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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.

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[-] morriscox@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

A previous version of this article stated that the White House app was actively tracking users' GPS coordinates every 4.5 minutes via OneSignal's SDK. This characterisation, which circulated widely on X, including in posts that accumulated hundreds of thousands of views, has since been contested by independent technical analysis. Multiple developers who reviewed the decompiled code confirmed that while the GPS tracking constants exist within OneSignal's bundled SDK, the app does not call that capability. No location permission prompt is issued to users upon installation, and OneSignal's documentation states that location data is not collected unless a developer explicitly enables the feature. The GPS code is most likely residual from the SDK template rather than a deliberate implementation. This article has been updated to reflect that distinction.

This is at the bottom of the article.

[-] Paragone@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

Anybody, anybody at all, who believes that they aren't going to be doing something really machiavellian, after operating on a "million deportations per year" paradigm, needs their head examined.

After dictatorship is activated, it'll be required for citizens.

Wait & see..

( & if they forgot to put spyware into their app this time, that doesn't mean it won't come in in an update. )

Get cynical: evidence warrants it, nowadays..

_ /\ _

PS: I have NO idea why a partial-version of this comment got multi-posted, while I was still writing it.

Sorry.

[-] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

But her emails!!!!

[-] Cantaloupe@lemmy.fedioasis.cc 42 points 2 days ago

Who tf is out here downloading the White House app?

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

I just learned it existed

[-] Tiger_Man_@szmer.info 61 points 2 days ago

its gotta be hard to be a conspiracy theorist nowadays where every theory turns out to be true

[-] Smokeless7048@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago

I wish any of the conspiracy theorists theories are the real theories.

They are all into pizzagate and flat earth, and not "huh, I bet the government's app is a peice of shit that's tracking me"

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

hey i'm a bigfoot truther. his name is larry and he's real into hugs

i mean that's it. we don't really have much beyond he sings like a moose that one time we let him use the shower. WHICH WAS A MISTAKE HE CLOGGED THE DAMN THING. but he sang like a moose.

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[-] nuko147@lemmy.world 69 points 2 days ago

Thank god that they banned foreigner made Routers to their whole country for security reasons though.

[-] MML@sh.itjust.works 24 points 2 days ago

Banning routers today, Reuters tomorrow.

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[-] modus@lemmy.world 42 points 2 days ago

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

[-] merdaverse@lemmy.zip 11 points 2 days ago

Official propaganda delivered right to your push notifications:

[-] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 days ago

Wow. That's North Korea levels of propaganda.

[-] magnetosphere@fedia.io 190 points 2 days ago

This is the kind of behavior I’d expect from this administration.

[-] Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 2 days ago

The bar is so low and they still manage to limbo under it

[-] GraniteM@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago

My favorite formulation is:

The bar was so low it was practically a tripping hazard in Hell, yet here you are, limbo dancing with the devil.

[-] Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 134 points 2 days ago

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

Freedom™

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[-] thisphuckinguy@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago

Why would anyone download this?

[-] merdaverse@lemmy.zip 22 points 2 days ago

If you're so stupid that you install an app for Trump propaganda, you deserve to boot of the state on your neck.

[-] osanna@lemmy.vg 95 points 2 days ago

Who the actual fuck would install an app from lying scum dumpy? Holy shit.

[-] xelar@lemmy.ml 26 points 2 days ago

Those who lost money on Trump coin.

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[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 34 points 2 days ago

I'm going to have to check my mother's phone.

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[-] TwinTitans@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

LOL. White House app. Just fuck right off with your propaganda 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[-] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Is this the same app that also has a feature that allows you to inform on others to ICE?

[-] PolarPirate@lemmy.zip 18 points 2 days ago

Scary thing is that this is EXTREMELY common....

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[-] auntieclokwise@lemmy.world 54 points 2 days 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.

[-] m4ylame0wecm@lemmy.zip 22 points 2 days ago
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[-] droopy4096@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 days ago

...the idea was to track POTUS47, as a sole user of the app, as he notoriously got lost...

[-] obinice@lemmy.world 64 points 2 days 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

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[-] waterSticksToMyBalls@lemmy.world 81 points 2 days ago

To be fair the type of person that would install a white house app probably needs to be tracked anyway.

[-] SGforce@lemmy.ca 62 points 2 days ago

This is tracking the press who need it for their job

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[-] skisnow@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 days 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.

[-] Gork@sopuli.xyz 55 points 2 days ago

So their app description is lying?

wut

[-] OwOarchist@pawb.social 85 points 2 days ago

The Trump regime, lying?

This is a thing unheard of!

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[-] thorhop@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago

Cheesy electron wrapper does some tracking. News at 9.

[-] rmuk@feddit.uk 14 points 2 days ago

Altogether now, and-a-one, and-a-two, and-a-one-two-three...

BUT HER EMAILS

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[-] green_goglin@thelemmy.club 15 points 2 days ago
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this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2026
1055 points (100.0% liked)

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