Whoop CEO Will Ahmed pushed back on speculation that his company’s devices pose a national security risk after White House chief of staff Susie Wiles was seen wearing a fitness tracker.
In a photo widely circulated by the Trump administration on Saturday, Wiles was shown with a black strap in her wrist, leading to questions online whether she breached security rules.
Wiles was in a makeshift Situation Room at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach Florida with President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other senior officials during Operation Epic Fury targeted military strikes by the U.S. and Israel against Iran over the weekend.
Some social media users believed that Wiles was wearing an Apple Watch, which would not be allowed in high security areas along with other smartwatches since the devices have the ability to record or be compromised.
However, in a social media post, Ahmed explained that the wearable shown on Wiles does not contain features typically found in modern smartwatches.
“It’s called a whoop,” Ahmed said in the post. It does not include a microphone, GPS, or cellular capability of any kind and has long been on the NSA approved PED list. Given today’s performance, it’s likely she had a green recovery, low RHR, and high HRV.”
Wiles monitored the military operations with several senior officials and was shown extending her right arm toward Trump, exposing the wearable.
Whoop devices track fitness and health metrics, do not have screen and can only communicate with paired devices to sync data which is shown on an app. The company, founded in 2012, is valued at around $3.6 billion and has become synonymous with “headless” wearables that sport fabric or silicone bands and have less features than smartwatches.
Numerous intelligence agencies have typically banned smartwatches, reduced the functionality of smartphones and limited Bluetooth-enabled devices in classified areas.
