The act of driving around an area while running a laptop configured to detect and capture wireless data transmissions.?

The answer is Wardriving

Explanation:

The act of driving around an area while running a laptop configured to detect and capture wireless data transmissions is Wardriving.

Wardriving is the act of searching for Wi-Fi wireless networks by a person usually in a moving vehicle, using a laptop or smartphone. Software for wardriving is freely available on the internet.

Warbiking, warcycling, warwalking and similar use the same approach but with other modes of transportation.

Wardrivers use a Wifi-equipped device together with a GPS device to record the location of wireless networks. The results can then be uploaded to websites like WiGLE, openBmap or Geomena where the data is processed to form maps of the network neighborhood. There are also clients available for smartphones running Android that can upload data directly.