The problem with the age we live in is that there’s an app for everything. It used to be a good thing, but now, every company and every service has an app and it’s getting annoying. Unfortunately, if you work for the US government, the White House is planning on forcing the official app onto the phones of its employees.
The White House could force its official app onto the phones of employees
According to a report from Gov Exec, they came across emails that suggest that the White House is planning on forcing employees to install the official White House app on their phones. This will come in the form of automatic downloads, which could kick off as soon as this week.
For those unfamiliar, the Trump administration recently released the official White House app a couple of months ago. The goal is to provide users with “unfiltered, real-time upgrades straight from the source.” There’s even an option to “Text President Trump,” although it seems to just place users on a mailing list.
Olivia Wales, a White House spokesperson said, “The White House App gives all Americans direct access to White House live streams, breaking news alerts, new policy initiatives, social media posts, and more. Government devices typically include pre-installed apps that provide value to government employees’ day-to-day work.”
Now, we get it. Some companies force employees to use the company’s app. That makes sense, but unfortunately, there could be privacy risks here.
The privacy implications
Based on what cybersecurity researchers have discovered, there are vulnerabilities in the app that could compromise the user’s privacy. For starters, the app shares IP addresses, time zones, and other types of data with third-party services. When the app initially launched, there was even a GPS tracking capability. Thankfully, that has since been removed.
This type of data is already pretty sensitive for regular apps, but forcing it onto the devices of government employees could make it worse. A lot of companies already guard their trade secrets very closely. We imagine that the government is just as stringent, if not more so. Forcing an app that can track IP addresses doesn’t seem particularly safe.
In any case, it doesn’t seem like government employees will have much of a choice. We can only hope that over time, these vulnerabilities will be addressed.
The post The White House Could Force Its App onto Government Phones, and Security Experts Are Worried appeared first on Android Headlines.
