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When Art, Apple and the Secret Service Collide

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-feel-safer-already dept.

theodp writes "Last July, Slashdot reported on Kyle McDonald, the artist who had the Secret Service raid his home at the behest of Apple, who was miffed with Kyle's surreptitious capture of people's expressions as they stared at computers in Apple Stores. A year later, Wired is running McDonald's first-person account of the preparation for and fallout from his People Staring at Computers project. 'I really wasn't expecting the Secret Service,' McDonald begins. 'Maybe an email, or a phone call from Apple. Instead, my first indication that something was "wrong" was a real-life visit from the organization best known for protecting the President of the United States of America.'"

5 of 358 comments (clear)

  1. Only in America... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Only in America, though generally where they lead we follow.

    1. Re:Only in America... by bryan1945 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      This isn't the type of thing you just ask permission for, like "can I grab an apple off your tree" (yes, intended). Something like this is where you get written permission beforehand, in triplicate, and file one in the basement in a locked closet with a leopard guarding it.

      This is not between Apple and an employee. He messed with Apple's property, not the employees. For the obligatory car reference- if a car salesperson says, "Yeah, feel free to run the car into a tree on your test drive!", the potential buyer is not getting off the hook for paying for the car because a salesman said it was cool.

      --
      Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
  2. Apple's now worse than Microsucks by cpu6502 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    " the artist who had the Secret Service raid his home at the behest of Apple, who was miffed with Kyle's surreptitious capture of people's expressions as they stared at computers in Apple Stores"

    Holy hell. I didn't hear this story til now, but what the HELL was Apple (and Jobs since he was still in charge) thinking? A public facility is not only forbidden from discriminating against people based on race, sex, age, et cetera, but also forbidden from blocking people from recording (with camera, audio, pen-and-paper) what they witness in plain sight.

    That's it. From this point forward when I hear someone waxing beautifically about hwo "great" Apple is, I will be linking to this story. And others. To show them how tyrannical the company has truly become.

    --
    My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
  3. Re:Nobody expects the spanish inquisition! by tjhart85 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Likely for the same reason people keep buying Microsoft products; If you have hundreds (maybe thousands) of dollars in software invested, you don't want to have to repurchase it all for another OS (if its even possible).

  4. Re:Just a reminder... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    if he "had permission" then why does he point out things like making sure he wasn't being watched, and having a tab to Flickr open that he could switch to to hide what he was doing?

    Fair enough. But, Secret Service?

    And isn't Apple the company that won't sell computers to Iranian-Americans?

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.