this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2026
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White House App Found Tracking Users' Exact Location Every 4.5 Minutes via Third-Party Server (www.ibtimes.co.uk)
submitted 2 days ago by spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
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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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[–] waterSticksToMyBalls@lemmy.world 77 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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

[–] SGforce@lemmy.ca 61 points 2 days ago (2 children)

This is tracking the press who need it for their job

[–] uninvitedguest@piefed.ca 17 points 2 days ago

Is the app a requirement to get a press pass?

[–] Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If that were even remotely true hopefully the press is smart enough to install on a burner "work" phone that sits in their desk drawer, or on a secondary account that is logged out by default.

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

that would still require the OS or user to spoof a location to actually prevent tracking. I hope they'd do that, but I wouldn't expect them to.

[–] Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Which? Leaving it in a desk prevents tracking because the desk isn't following you. Putting it on an account that is fully logged out by default means it only gets your location when you switch to that account (which you can control).

I have a separate user in GrapheneOS for service accounts like Amazon or my Philips Hue lights, and that account is fully blocked for running in the background. Once a month or so when I need one of those apps I'm sure they all phone home, but their data is heavily limited.

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I thought it was a given that, if it's a phone app, you're likely to want to carry it with you, not leave it on a desk with your computer.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

That's probably why they did it. They know trump is most likely to be shot at by one of their own nuts.