Article Lead Image

We found the Williamsburg spycam

An astute Daily Dot reader dove Google Maps, pinpointing the location of a secret camera that films Brooklyn hipsters in the wild.

 

Aja Romano

Streaming

Posted on Oct 25, 2012   Updated on Jun 2, 2021, 8:48 am CDT

The Williamsburg hipster-cam—that hidden webcam which filmed hipsters in the wild, unbeknownst to them, and broadcast everything for the world to see—may have already been located by an astute Dot reader. But will Brooklyn residents who walk past the spot stay away?

Perhaps not; but the word is definitely, erm, on the street.

Dot reader Queen TEE offered their best guess as to the location of the secret camera, which films passersby and uploads them in real-time to a voting site, sometimes with awkward results. Queen Tee’s verdict? The hidden cam is lodged in a window at 234 North 7th Street:

I found it using google street view, looking for the bright green house in the background.  The green house and the one to the right of it match up, and across the street is construction on the sidewalk.  looking at the angle the pictures are taken in relation to the construction points to 234 across the street, and zooming in shows a fence identical to the one in the foreground of the photos.  looking at the angle of the fence in photos shows the camera is in the bottom floor/basement window.

… zoom in on the fence, then rotate around and look for the green building across the street and the car. the color in the photos is more saturated, making the green building look brighter than on g.s.v. but if you have any doubts look closely at the fences in front and you will find a perfect match.

 

Unrecorded

Commenters at the Gothamist also found the street, and at New York Mag, reader DetroitGirl noted, “This problem could be very quickly solved with a well-placed stone.”

Not all reactions have been focused on the privacy invasion, as some Williamsburg hipsters find the spot and give it their approval. Then again, others are less congenial.  And still others drew the comparison between the fashion cam and New York City’s regular hidden surveillance cameras.

“Neither is something I want on the street, but I’d prefer a camera observing me for internet lulz over a camera observing me for secret police state ‘security reasons,’” Tumblr user saezutte wrote.

Correction: this article originally attributed Tumblr user saezutte’s comments to a different user. We apologize for the error.

Photo via Syleblaster

Share this article
*First Published: Oct 25, 2012, 8:46 am CDT