That video artist whose software grabbed pictures of Apple Store computer users? He’s been tracked down by Apple and raided by the Feds. He had to see this coming.
Every morning for three days, Kyle McDonald would trek down to the New York Apple Stores in SoHo and West 14th St, and install software that automatically uploaded pictures from computer cameras each minute. He captured lots of bored faces for his video and website including, apparently, one shot of an Apple technician at headquarters in Cupertino, who was investigating his software.
Then this morning, says Mashable, four secret service agents showed up with a computer fraud warrant and confiscating his computers and gear. McDonald told Mashable “he got permission from Apple’s security guards to take photos in the store, then asked customers if he could take their photos”, but he certainly didn’t get permission from every single person whose face he captured; his software was installed on 100 different computers, each taking a photo a minute. “As i understand,” McDonald told us, “photography in open spaces is legal unless explicitly prohibited. The only permission came from the guard. That said, i totally understand if someone doesn’t like the way they look, and would be glad to remove their photo from the set.”
That’s a good point: An Apple Store is a public place. Beyond that, anyone in a location controlled by Steve Jobs should assume they are under constant surveillance. Duh.