from Hacker News

Dear Mr. Vice President, Please Take Off Your Apple Watch

by Krasnol on 2/9/25, 11:29 AM with 59 comments

  • by chatmasta on 2/9/25, 1:33 PM

    The article suggests to order a Breitling through a special program they have for White House employees to engrave the White House seal on the watch.

    What if they do more to the watch than engrave it? Talk about a targeted supply chain attack…

  • by ec109685 on 2/9/25, 12:59 PM

    Don’t smartphones pose all the same risks? The only thing unique to an Apple Watch is that the screen stays visible at all times, so maybe something could leak there via a notification or whatnot.

    If he’s doing things right, the VP should have two phones with the watch tied to his personal one, reducing whatever risk the watch introduces further.

  • by el_snark on 2/9/25, 1:01 PM

    Thought this was pretty cool, but as the article progressed, it seemed to be selling various analogue watches, so that took the glee out of it a bit.

  • by 404mm on 2/9/25, 6:07 PM

    I’d argue that the VP himself is greater threat to this country than his Apple Watch.

  • by netsharc on 2/9/25, 12:39 PM

  • by emeril on 2/10/25, 12:22 AM

    I love the comment on the article "Lol. Lmao. You think a watch is going to be the biggest insider threat? What about the unelected foreign national rifling through every server closest in the DC metro area?"

  • by pjc50 on 2/9/25, 2:31 PM

    I feel like this is a cute little nicety compared to the whole Trump files business, plus a bunch of unvetted non-employees having access to the whole of USAID and an increasing number of other systems, simply by barging in the front door.

  • by Finnucane on 2/9/25, 1:19 PM

    Just making it easier for his sponsors to keep tabs on him.

  • by throw1231918 on 2/9/25, 3:04 PM

    He could use a golden pager provided by the Mossad:

    https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/06/middleeast/netanyahu-trum...

    In any case, the tech bros he is aligned with do not care much about security or quality software.

  • by vtashkov on 2/9/25, 5:50 PM

    https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/the-watches-of-president-b...

    "Now we're talking ubiquity. When President Biden isn't wearing one of his many steel (or two-tone) sport watches, you'll likely find him with an Apple Watch. It's unclear why, or for which occasions he chooses the smartwatch out of his watch box, but he's worn it in the Oval, and at the Resolute, just as he has with any of his other watches. "

    So when Biden wears it, it's OK. No 'former CIA' writes any open letters, no HN Commies "following orders". When the Vice-President wears it - they are stupid and they are threatening national security.

    What a hypocrisy is the whole democratic party. Disgusting propaganda methods akin to Soviets.

  • by 9283409232 on 2/9/25, 2:37 PM

    Trump administration is stripping down the government and selling it to enemy nations and oligarchs so they can run their "Network-States." I don't think spying on an Apple Watch is exactly a priority here.

  • by dangus on 2/9/25, 2:29 PM

    Don't worry, J.D. Vance doesn't have anything interesting to say of use to any foreign intelligence service.

    The current president of the United States is Elon Musk, and Donald Trump is the Vice President.

    J.D. Vance is just the coffee boy.

  • by dosinga on 2/9/25, 1:09 PM

    > We are big fans of Apple and believe the iPhone and iPad are two of the most consequential products of the last century

    Huh? How are they products of the last century? Other than that most things are

  • by amelius on 2/9/25, 2:47 PM

    Makes sense, because what if a Chinese company becomes owner of Apple? In a free economy, very possible.

  • by analog31 on 2/9/25, 4:11 PM

    Of course his watch is hacked. If anybody's tracking him, it's the boss. Anybody who's ever worked a regular job knows this.