UK blogger Yosuf Smith has posted a disturbing story on his Indigo Jo Web site explaining that he was detained by police after apparently being spotted surfing Muslim Web sites at the Bentall Centre (UK) store. Smith says he regularly visits the store to check his e-mail and manage comments on his blog. During his Sunday visit two police officers approached him in the store and asked him to step outside, where they briefly questioned him. Smith suspects the staff reported him to police, either through genuine concern or some personality difference. Either way, the incident demonstrates the realities of national security, and takes some of the shine off the Apple store experience.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Of course, the guy could always buy his own computer and stop using the store’s computers all of the time for personal use. That would probably keep him from being questioned by the police.
Those Macs are there as demos for store customers, not to serve as a free internet terminals for people to come in each day to check their personal e-mail and manage their blogs. The Apple Store is a not a free internet bar after all.
The guy was surfing jihad websites and leaving them open. Of course it would raise concerns at this present time in the UK. Rob is right. You come into an Apple store and leave your ” blog ” and leave the store is gonna raise some concern. People are scared here and have a right to be. If he did this in the States he would be in jail.
After reading the blog entry, I completely side with the Apple customer. However, I doubt it was UK Apple Store staff that reported the customer and have strong suspicions that it actually might of been another customer. I’ve had similar situations happen in my store before.
The comments above are ridiculous. One, ‘the guy’ is a potential Apple customer and should always be treated as such. I don’t know what you consider a ‘demo’ but, using email, blogs and surfing the web on a Mac is test-driving a machine and demonstrates how Apple technology works. Second, there isn’t any proof that the sites the customer visited were actually Jihad-related. If you actually read the blog, there is no mention or indication of this whatsoever.
I agree with the IFO post: the incident does indeed take some of the shine off the Apple store. Disappointing.
I fully agree with the Rob & Mubo_Jumbo, the machines are there for customers to roadtest and not for their own personal use. At the current time the British public are being urged to be extra vigilant and I think the staff at the Apple Store did the right thing!
The machines in an Apple Store are for the use of customers, potential customers and non-customers, this has always been Apple’s approach with their stores as reported by this very web site:
Each store has free Internet access, Johnson said. “Busy stores create buzz,” he explained. At the flagship stores, Apple has set up Internet cafés, and placed them in the best location within the stores. Why? “We want people who are getting something free to have the best experience,” Johnson explained, “not an inferior experience.” He said people from out of town, or are on their lunch break can come in and check their mail or video conference with their kids back home.
These are very tough calls for everyone. On the one hand, someone should be able to visit any website they choose without being harassed. People should be punished for illicit actions, not for what they think or read.
On the other hand, what if the web site had some kind of instructions to terrorists and this fellow went out and set a bomb off a few minutes later?
It’s reported today that New York City wants to set up hundreds of additional spy cameras in the downtown area, much like London has. On the one hand, it’s somewhat of an invasion of privacy (although some would argue that there is no expectation of privacy in a public place). On the other, it might help prevent an attack.
So frankly, I don’t know what the answer is.
Regardless of what web sites he’s surfing to, the Apple Store should have thrown him out anyway. As others have said, those computers are there to demo to potential customers. It’s not a free internet cafe. Would he go into Currys just to sit and watch TV..? Would he go into John Lewis to make a smoothie in a blender..?
Tell him to buy a computer or pay for usage at an internet cafe. I’m sick of the take-what-you-can-get, what’s-in-it-for-me attitude that seems to be all around these days.
“GadgetGav says:
Regardless of what web sites he’s surfing to, the Apple Store should have thrown him out anyway. As others have said, those computers are there to demo to potential customers. It’s not a free internet cafe”
That may be your opinion of how the Apple stores SHOULD operate, but it’s not their policy. Their policy is, in effect, a free internet cafe, just as Barnes & Noble let’s people use their bookstores as a library (albeit one in which the books don’t circulate.) I personally think that the slobs who lay all over the floor and turn all the books into essentially used books are a pain in the butt, but it’s B&N’s policy because they think it increases sales and it’s Apple’s policy to let people use their computers to surf and/or do work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWyJJQbFago&NR=1
Re: People are scared here and have a right to be.
We are all people–even if our skin is not white or our religion is not Christian. Muslims fear, too, you know. We really do need to find a way to get along. Apple is helping to bridge the gaps in our understanding by offering the Internet for free. I am confident that if you actually made a friend who is Muslim you would see that “they” are no different than “us.”
What is sad to me is that so many of these same arguments were used to create fear of people of African decent for so many years. We are all one people.
“… he was detained…”? Am I missing something? From his blog, I understand he only had a short chat with a few police officers, outside the Apple Store. I understand this could be upsetting, but let’s not exaggerate. [IFO -- I may be mixing up American and British English. Typically a "detention" is a temporary field custody, as opposed to an "arrest," which is a more formal holding of the person.]
Thanks a lot for the link and for all the comments.
I appreciate that the Apple Store staff may have found my behaviour rather rude. I find being confronted when I enter any shop and asked if I need help, when I am clearly not trying to attract attention, annoying. I can speak for myself and if I want help, I’ll ask for it. In this day and age, running to the police with talk of “extremism” causes danger to that person. The London police have shot someone dead in the recent past because they wrongly suspected him of terrorist intent. To run to the police because you don’t like their manner is to make a malicious complaint, which constitutes wasting police time which is illegal. [IFO -- Mr. Smith is the person who was stopped by the police inside the Regent Street Apple store.]