The secret service has raided the home of a man that collected pictures from an Apple store webcam. The New Yorker claimed that he was an artist and that the images were part of a piece he was carrying out. Kyle McDonald installed software onto an Apple Mac whilst in store and then uploaded the images to a site online.
Mr McDonald informed his followers and fans that the secret service had been in his home through the social networking site Twitter. He tweeted: “@secretservice just stopped by to investigate [web address removed] and took my laptop. Please assume they’re reading any e-mails you send me.”
The artist was uploading the pictures onto the blogging platform Tumblr. The page, called People Staring at Computers, was described by Kyle McDonald as ‘a photographic intervention’. The site featured a wide range of images of users trying out the Apple Mac. McDonald installed an app that took a picture every minute and then upload the picture if the app found a face in the image.
Mr McDonald has claimed that he got permission from the store’s security guard to carry out the photographic experiment. So far both the store and Apple themselves have declined to comment. The Secret Service have confirmed that there is an investigation by the electronic crime division in place however. It is believed that Mr McDonald will be charged under US Code Title 18/1030 which directly related to fraud and activity in connection with computers.
