Art

[baldrick]

Just read the linked piece and whilst I think the findings/observations are interesting re. how we interact with technology, I'm not sure I'd call it art? I also think the methods used are innovative but dubious at best...

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/07/people-staring-at-computers/

 

[EndlessWaves]

As he says, it's no different from the CCTV cameras in the store doing the same thing and sending the images to Apple.

 

[baldrick]

As he says, it's no different from the CCTV cameras in the store doing the same thing and sending the images to Apple.

I'm not sure that's a fair comparison. When you walk into a store nowadays you expect there to be CCTV in operation that could be used in the event of a crime being committed etc... You are on private property and the images are being recorded from cameras in the ceiling and stored privately.

In the case of this exercise, someone had installed what is tantamount to spyware onto computers owned by a company he has no association with for the sole purpose of photographing unsuspecting members of the public and uploading those images to a website for public display and some might argue his own commercial gains. No one expects each computer on display in an Apple store to be operating as a CCTV camera and even if that wasn't the case you wouldn't expect the images to be leaving the confines of the Apple corporate environment.

 

[EndlessWaves]

You are on private property and the images are being recorded from cameras in the ceiling and stored privately.

You're only on private property once inside the shop, I'm sure they've got CCTV monitoring the area just outside the shop as well.

someone had installed what is tantamount to spyware

Nonsense, spyware is installed secretly without the user's permission. Apple had already given implicit permission by allowing any programs to be installed on those systems and he even went and got explicit permission from an employee. He didn't install it secretly either, but sat down in front of the machines and did it.

onto computers owned by a company he has no association with

Don't forget that to get into the shop he operated a door owned by them too!

for the sole purpose of photographing unsuspecting members of the public and uploading those images to a website for public display

Something that professional photographers, TV cameramen and webcams do all the time.

 

[baldrick]

Nonsense, spyware is installed secretly without the user's permission. Apple had already given implicit permission by allowing any programs to be installed on those systems and he even went and got explicit permission from an employee. He didn't install it secretly either, but sat down in front of the machines and did it.

He asked an employee if it was ok to take photographs in the store and was told "yes" and because there were no signs saying "you are not allowed to install software on these machines" he assumed it must be ok.

At no point did he ask an employee "can I install a piece of software on every machine in the store that will secretly photograph customers and then upload those photographs to a server for use in an 'art' project I'm compiling?"

If he had I would wager a significant amount of money that the answer would have been "no".

Using your logic if someone was at your house and they started playing with the configuration of your computer or rearranging the contents of your fridge it would be ok because you hadn't told them they couldn't do it?