Security agents have raised the house of the New York artist who hijacked computers in an Apple Store in order to collect pictures of the customers taking a look at the Apple devices in the retail store.

The artists, Kyle McDonald is believed to have installed software to photograph people looking at the laptops and then upload them into a website. McDonald alleges that he took the permission of the security guard to take pictures inside the store.

Writing on Twitter, Mr McDonald said: "@secretservice just stopped by to investigate and took my laptop. Please assume they're reading any e-mails you send me."

McDonald's images were uploaded to a page on the blogging site Tumblr. The ‘People Staring at Computers’ description says that project is a photographic intervention. It also said that the pictures are from an app installed around NYC and takes pictures every minute and uploads it if a face appears in the picture. The site features a video and series of photographs showing people looking at computers.

The secret service has not arrested McDonald but if charged he could face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Mr McDonald said on Twitter that he has been advised by the Electronic Frontier Foundation to not comment on the case.