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AlwaysPhotographing
Feds Investigate Artist's Variation on Street Photography
Published
by Valerie
on 2011-07-09
on 2011-07-09
Brooklyn artist Kyle McDonald thought about how people stare at computers and wondered if we knew what the computer sees would we look at it differently. This is the underlying question that motivated his project.
To obtain the images, McDonald installed software on the demo machines at a local Apple store. He needed to re-install regularly because Apple cleans its demo machines daily.
The usual privacy or trespass concerns are not the issue in this case. Shoppers in a public showroom have no expectation of privacy and there is no evidence that Apple prohibited photography, particularly with webcams that it could have disabled.
Accessing a computer without authorization is among the prohibitions of federal law 18 USC Section 1030
. Whether McDonald can be found guilty under this law could depend upon whether the security guards who McDonald claims granted permission to photograph understood that that he would be installing software on their computers. Failing that, he may need to argue that Apple implicitly invited the public to try out the computers, including allowing the installation of software.
No charges have been brought, but the Secret Service seized McDonald's laptop.
Read the PCMag news story:
Artist Gets Secret Service Visit Over Apple Store Webcam Spying
To obtain the images, McDonald installed software on the demo machines at a local Apple store. He needed to re-install regularly because Apple cleans its demo machines daily.
The usual privacy or trespass concerns are not the issue in this case. Shoppers in a public showroom have no expectation of privacy and there is no evidence that Apple prohibited photography, particularly with webcams that it could have disabled.
Accessing a computer without authorization is among the prohibitions of federal law 18 USC Section 1030
. Whether McDonald can be found guilty under this law could depend upon whether the security guards who McDonald claims granted permission to photograph understood that that he would be installing software on their computers. Failing that, he may need to argue that Apple implicitly invited the public to try out the computers, including allowing the installation of software.No charges have been brought, but the Secret Service seized McDonald's laptop.
Read the PCMag news story:
Artist Gets Secret Service Visit Over Apple Store Webcam Spying
