Grand Theft America / Receipt power-2026-06-28-059

A White House office ran tracking software on federal sites and built a copy of vote.gov

The National Design Studio, a White House office created by executive order and staffed largely by veterans of the department of government efficiency, built and operates four public federal websites that ran commercial visitor-tracking software configured to evade privacy tools, and has apparently built a copy of the federal voter-registration site vote.gov accessible only with a White House login.

Verified through 2026-08-26Source: theguardian.comCorrections: none logged

What happened

A Guardian investigation published on 28 June 2026 found the studio built and now operates ndstudio.gov, trumprx.gov, realfood.gov and trumpaccounts.gov, none of which carry the public filings federal privacy law requires under the Privacy Act of 1974 and the E-Government Act of 2002. Analysis of the source code found that on at least two of the sites the studio installed a commercial tool called PostHog that closely tracks what every visitor does. The Guardian reports the studio apparently removed the tracking software after it sent the White House detailed questions on 4 June, and that on 17 June White House spokesperson Liz Huston said all studio personnel comply with all legal requirements. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency ownership records list the executive office of the president as the registrant of the studio's sites, including passports.gov and the vote.gov copy.

Why it matters

Voter registration is assigned by law to an independent bipartisan commission, and a White House-controlled copy of that service places the registration channel inside the office that stands for election. The Guardian reports that a federal voter-registration system run from inside the White House, with identity and citizenship checks routed through systems the administration controls, could let an incumbent see who is registering, or check their registration, in the weeks before an election.

Receipt details

  • Phase 1
  • Build a surveillance machine
  • Fuse government data into one system

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