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Artist Gets Visit From Secret Service After Secretly Photographing Apple Store Customers
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jul 7, 2011
Modified Jul 7, 2011
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jul 7, 2011
Modified Jul 7, 2011
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Over the course of three days in June, artist Kyle McDonald captured the faces of Apple patrons in two of the company's Manhattan stores. He did this by installing a program on computers in the stores, which automatically took an image every minute. He explained, “I thought maybe we could see ourselves doing this we would think more about our computers and how we’re using them." Well, now he won't have to think about it, because Mashable is reporting that the U.S. Secret Service has confiscated McDonald's own personal computers!
The site notes that McDonald knew an Apple technician had traced traffic from almost 100 of their computers to his own servers, but he figured it wasn't a big deal... until the four men in suits came knocking on his door this morning with a search warrant for computer fraud. They left with two computers, an iPod, flash drives, and a message: Apple will be contacting you. But for now he's just hoping they'll let him back into the store so he can buy a new computer.
McDonald doesn't believe he broke any laws, however, and his website is still up, showing photos of people gazing into the glowing computer screens.
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apple store
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Kyle McDonald
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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