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.
Thank god that they banned foreigner made Routers to their whole country for security reasons though.
Banning routers today, Reuters tomorrow.
I have been saving up for a router and wanted to support a company that sells devices that are compatible with as much open source software as possible.
This really sucks. If I had known this was going to happen randomly I would have prioritised saving up faster and just not spent it on other things. I had no idea I needed to prioritise this.
But like I say frequently about the US. It is a very prohibitionist country. You never know when the next thing you do or use will be criminalized or prohibited. Then you will be at risk of being arrested and in some cases even sent to a literal for profit private prison ran by a place like CoreCivic. It is fucked up.
Even if I were to get a router from a foreign manufacturer now, it likely won’t be legal for me to actually use it. The FCC could at the very least fine somebody depending on how this order will be enforced.
There is also possibly going to be a risk of it being seized at the border.
Who knows how this will even be enforced since the vast vast majority of consumer routers are not even made in the US. I don’t even know of one truly made in the US. But a router from a foreign open source focused company will likely be considered even more of a “foreign manufacturer”.
That means we have to invade a foreign country who makes routers, because we don’t make routers in America.
America First!
To be fair the type of person that would install a white house app probably needs to be tracked anyway.
That’s probably why they did it. They know trump is most likely to be shot at by one of their own nuts.
This is tracking the press who need it for their job
Is the app a requirement to get a press pass?
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.
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.
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.
According to the Google Play Store, there are 467 reviews (4.8 stars) but “0+” downloads. Like everything else about the White House, it doesn’t add up.
And maybe most people know to keep it off their phones.
It’s because there were SO many downloads, more than two BILLION I’m told, by some really fantastic people who made the app, this wonderful app, that we hit something called an INTEGER LIMIT. Can you believe that? We had so many of you GREAT Americans sign up, that it just completely broke the App Store. It’s just incredible.
/s
8 bit I assume
One bit.
More like
We hit something called pulls up paper
int… inta… intajur? limit. what a word
Why would anyone install government shit on their phone
From the US government, I completely agree. But a functional government helps and supports its citizens and there are plenty of ways an app on your phone can help. Admittedly that’s pretty ideological, but at the very least I’d argue there is a spectrum
In a hypothetical socialist utopia with rigorously defined and enforced guarantees of rights and liberties, government-owned platforms can and should replace corporate-owned ones.
Imagine a concept like facebook/instagram/twitter, except it’s open-source and transparent, and its users are in control of its governance through direct democracy and collective ownership. Plus a set of rules defining explicitly what they can’t do, including all predatory, coercive, manipulative, and profiteering practices that are the industry standard now.
Obviously it’s not a simple solution. Government control ≠ fair, equitable, and transparent. That’s why I framed this as a hypothetical. It requires that socialist utopia, collective ownership, direct democracy, and open-source format. But it is possible, and we shouldn’t let our imaginations be hampered by what exists today, in this system.
So many things could be done better with centralized planning, but that depends on who is in charge of that planning. And that’s why we need direct democracy and collective ownership. Those things can actually be enabled by technology, despite the fact that technology is currently being used to hamper it.
Like, report a pothole on your maps app, and the state repairs it within a week. Go to the open forum section of your social media, and discuss the items on the upcoming bill proposal with the members of your community. Start a citizen’s initiative by filling out a simple form that’s accessible to everyone and posting it in the right section of the platform. Audit your local government’s budget/expenses as easily as navigating to the right tab.
There’s a better way of doing the things we’re already doing. We just have to dare to imagine, to believe, and to persevere until our vision becomes a reality.
What you wrote reminded me of a minor idea that’s been floating in my head: I kind of wish that more governments did something like requiring adding your business to OpenStreetMaps as part of registering the business with the government, or even just publishing the basic data (location, opening hours, …) somewhere that all the maps apps sync with
That would be cool, but isn’t OSM the one with the wonky governance issues? A bunch of devs split from them and forked the source code, which they now develop as CoMaps. It’s a much more solid option for that reason
From Wikipedia, not quite but I learnt so something, so thanks:
CoMaps is a community-driven, free and open-source, offline navigation app that uses map data from OpenStreetMap (OSM)
The CoMaps project was initiated in response to growing concerns and dissatisfaction within the Organic Maps community. The original Organic Maps project, while initially promoted as an open community effort, faced significant issues related to governance, transparency, and the potential for shareholder profit at the expense of the community.
It should just be a website and not something that needs to live on my phone 24/7
Oh yeah, I didn’t intend my comment to say that this specific app makes sense, just that some can
Don’t you follow and obey Orange Jesus?
Quite a few governments make it mandatory, either as an only way to complete a required process, or (like my govt) make any alternate options, like phone or Web, an absolute nightmare
The Play Store has recently (I think about 3 years ago?) introduced delayed updates for things like download counts because they were battling faked statistics (e.g. the download counter could be manipulated by bot farms), so now downloads are accumulated and checked against users actually using the app and having it on their devices - which takes time to update so IIRC they now only update that counter every month. Hence the 0+ downloads.
So they’re verifying downloads, but not reviews?
509 reviews as I write this and still 0 downloads and zero of those 509 reviews have any text; just stars.
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.
I’m surprised it doesn’t periodically send your browsing history to the fuhrer for inspection.
That’s the ultimate objective, of course. That, and tracking every opinion you post on social media.
K, I think they all deserve high velocity therapy to fix their broken brains.
A little Flying Lead Poisoning?
Who tf is out here downloading the White House app?
I just learned it existed
…the idea was to track POTUS47, as a sole user of the app, as he notoriously got lost…
LOL. White House app. Just fuck right off with your propaganda 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Why would anyone download this?
shocked there’s spying going on… https://youtu.be/vxnpY0owPkA?t=24
Scary thing is that this is EXTREMELY common…
scary thing is most people have no idea. scroll cats 🤷
If you’re so stupid that you install an app for Trump propaganda, you deserve to boot of the state on your neck.
Surprised=False
sus
the reason the rich buy bodies is to bury golf courses in them i’m calling it now
And by “White House App” I’m going to assume they mean Twitter, since the article is REALLY light on specifics.
No, there’s a new “Official” The White House app for Android / iOS.
If the gps data goes to a 3rd party I wonder who owns those servers. Palantir?
Would it be bad if we were using GPS spoofers and locate thousands of people in the WH at all time?
