Ask HN: POTUS Wears a GPS Enabled Fitbit Surge.  How Secure Is That? - kiddz
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Someone1234
POTUS also walks around with a cellphone. At least as safe as that.

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mcintyre1994
According to the Guardian [0] Obama's phone is specially hardened by the NSA,
so maybe not necessarily?

[0] [http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/28/which-
phon...](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/28/which-phones-world-
leaders-use)

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Someone1234
I guess it depends what "security" we're discussing.

I was talking about passive signal noise which could be used to locate a
potential target (e.g. pick the president's vehicle from the identical ones in
the motorcade). Even a hardened phone will still leak EM radiation.

If we're talking about informational security, well, I don't know why we
would. The Fitbit doesn't sync realtime and most of the president's meetings
are public. So while it would be extremely embarrassing, I don't know how
compromising it would be.

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brlewis
The Surge GPS is turned off except when doing a GPS-enabled exercise like
bicycling or running, so as you commented earlier the phone is the weak link
here. The Fitbit Surge can be ignored.

