"The Secret Life of Data" By Aram Sinnreich & Jesse Gilbert

How data surveillance, digital forensics, and generative AI pose new long-term threats and opportunities – and how we can use them to make better decisions in the face of technological uncertainty.

In The Secret Life of Data, Stuyvesant High School alumni, Aram Sinnreich ’90 and Jesse Gilbert ’90, explore unpredictable and often surprising ways in which data surveillance, AI, and the constant presence of algorithms impact our culture and society in the age of global networks. The authors build on the premise that no matter the form or purpose of data, they will always have a secret life. How these data will be used will have profound implications for every aspect of our lives, from intimate relationships to professional lives to political systems.

With the secret uses of data in mind, Sinnreich and Gilbert interview dozens of experts to explore a broad range of scenarios and contexts—from playful to profound to problematic. Unlike most books about data and society that focus on short-term effects of immense data usage, The Secret Life of Data focuses primarily on long-term consequences of humanity's recent rush to digitize, store, and analyze every piece of data about ourselves and our world. The authors advocate for “slow fixes” regarding our relationship to data, such as creating new laws and regulations, ethics and aesthetics, and production models for our datafied society.

Cutting through the hype and hopelessness that often inform discussions of data and society, The Secret Life of Data clearly and straightforwardly demonstrates how readers can play an active part in shaping how digital technology influences their lives and the world at large.

This event will be moderated by Stuyvesant High School alumnus, Andrew Chow ’10. Andrew R. Chow is a correspondent for Time who covers technology, culture, and business. He has written five Time cover stories, discussing the impacts of the AI corporate arms race and a prescient profile of Vitalik Buterin months before the 2022 crypto crash. He has previously written for The New York Times, Pitchfork, and NBC News. His first book, Cryptomania: Hype, Hope, and the Fall of FTX’s Billion-Dollar Fintech Empire, describes the meteoric rise of Sam Bankman-Fried and his growth-obsesses approach to building the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, and the subsequent downfall and human toll of its economic meltdown. It has been chosen by DisrupTV as one of the Top 24 Books of 2024.

Host or Publisher American University School of Communication