Federal privacy alarms are blaring after investigators say a White House design shop quietly wired several high-traffic government websites with visitor-tracking tech. The National Design Studio, a temporary office set up to modernize federal web pages, rebuilt portals that handle passport services, prescription-drug pricing and voter registration. Critics say the code on those sites captured detailed user activity and are now asking whether required privacy paperwork was ever filed, and who actually controls any data scooped up from Americans using those services.
What investigators found
Investigators who pulled apart the studio's site code say they found a commercial analytics tool called PostHog embedded on at least four studio-built sites: ndstudio.gov, trumprx.gov, realfood.gov and trumpaccounts.gov. According to the reporting, the software's session-recording feature was active on some pages and could log clicks, scrolling and typed input, with some recording apparently switchable from a remote dashboard without changing the visible site code, as reported by The Guardian.
How the tracking worked
Product-analytics platforms such as PostHog promote session-replay tools that let operators watch a user's visit like a screen recording for debugging and design tests. Investigators say the National Design Studio set things up so analytics requests were routed through the federal domain itself, a first-party hosting trick that can make those calls blend in with normal site traffic and slip past common ad blockers, according to industry and media analyses. G2 describes PostHog's session-recording features, and reporting on the studio's code flagged the proxy configuration as a central concern in coverage by IBTimes.
Privacy rules and missing notices
Federal law and guidance require agencies to spell out how they collect and use personal information online. The General Services Administration says programs and systems that collect personally identifiable information typically need a Privacy Impact Assessment and, when appropriate, a system-of-records notice explaining how records are stored and shared. Privacy advocates say that kind of paperwork is missing from public records tied to the studio's web projects. See guidance from GSA.
What officials say
The White House told reporters the studio's staff follow legal requirements. Coverage also noted that some of the tracking was disabled or removed after journalists started asking questions, according to The Guardian. Local media pushed the story into breakfast-table territory when tech consultant Ian Marlow walked through the privacy concerns on WJXT's Morning Show, a segment summarized by News4JAX.
Why it matters for elections and trust
The studio's preview of a White House-controlled version of Vote.gov is drawing special scrutiny because the live voter-registration portal is run by the independent Election Assistance Commission. Reporting indicates the public Vote.gov remains under the commission's control, while a White House preview ran on separate infrastructure. The National Design Studio was created to overhaul tens of thousands of federal sites and now routes some services through White House-controlled infrastructure, a consolidation that privacy advocates say could centralize sensitive data flows. For background on the studio's mission see Federal News Network, and for oversight concerns see IBTimes.
Legal risks and oversight
Lawyers point to a growing stack of lawsuits over session-replay tools and to state wiretapping statutes that have already been used against private companies running similar code. Those cases could shape any legal challenges tied to government deployments. Recent legal reviews say courts in several circuits have allowed wiretapping-style claims based on session replay to move forward, and the lack of required agency privacy filings could invite inspector-general investigations, congressional questions or fresh litigation. For broader legal context, see data-privacy analysis by Gibson Dunn.
Next steps are likely to be procedural but important: watchdogs and lawmakers are expected to press for clarity on what, if anything, was recorded, how long it was stored and who had access. In the meantime, users worried about sensitive inputs can limit exposure with simple moves like private-browsing sessions, script-blocking extensions or sticking to official agency pages that clearly post their privacy notices while the policy and legal fights play out.
