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.

  • morriscox@lemmy.world
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    6 days 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
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      5 days 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.

  • Tiger_Man_@szmer.info
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    7 days ago

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

    • Corhen@lemmy.world
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      7 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”

      • nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de
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        7 days ago

        There’s a lot of that, it is just that typical media does not cover them as they are not “interesting”. Like, there was a Surrounded debate where they brought a lot of conspiracy theorists with one journalist, and iirc they only talked about one topic regarding the government, rest was just flat earth, aliens etc.

        There are a lot of theorists that claim how much the government is lying about things, manipulating the masses etc, most of which is slowly coming true.

        On a side note, if you have played GTA SA, you must have seen The Truth talking so much nonsense. I would like to share this as I have always found this very funny.

        CJ: What’s with all the aluminum foil, man?

        The Truth: Protection from mind control, dude.

        CJ: Mind control?

        The Truth: Induction of images, sound or emotion using microwave radiation. D’you know how many government satellites are watching any citizen at any moment?

        CJ: No.

        The Truth: Twenty three. Do you know how many religious relics are kept at The Pentagon?

        CJ: No, I don’t.

        The Truth: Twenty three. You see a pattern emerging here, man?

        CJ: Man, I’m seeing patterns all over the place! Get that smoke out of my face!

        Hehe.

      • T00l_shed@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Honestly, with this admin… I think pizzagate is one of those “every accusation is a confession” deals

      • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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        7 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.

  • Obinice@lemmy.world
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    8 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

  • Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works
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    8 days 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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        7 days 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,)

    • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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      7 days 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.

  • osanna@lemmy.vg
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    8 days ago

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

  • NutWrench@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    And by “White House App” I’m going to assume they mean Twitter, since the article is REALLY light on specifics.