Review by Choice Review
In The Secret Life of Data, Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert argue that every data artifact--from a news story to a strand of DNA to a selfie--has the potential to spawn diverse and seemingly endless varieties of new data, which can then be organized in new ways and put to novel uses. Data about individuals and communities are especially prone to unintended applications and are regularly repurposed as instruments of surveillance and control by powerful institutions. Starting from this premise, the authors offer an accessible survey of how recent advances in visioning and computational technologies continue to accelerate data's proliferation, deepen their impact on our lives, and present us with ethical and social dilemmas. Sinnreich is a professor and chair of the Communication Studies department at American University; he is the author of The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property (2019) and other books, as well as numerous academic and popular articles about remix culture, media ethics, and digital surveillance. Gilbert is an artist, technologist, composer, and software designer whose work has been featured at national and international festivals, performance spaces, and museums. In addition to being the founding chair of the Media Technology department at Woodbury University (2011--17), he has taught interactive software design at CalArts and UC--San Diego. Sinnreich and Gilbert have collaborated before, notably on an article in The International Journal of Communication that uses the metaphor of a carrier wave to illustrate the ways computational technologies realize the latent potential of objects and interactions to propagate new data. The Secret Life of Data follows other works in the last few years that investigate the social impact of a range of computing technologies like machine learning and AI, algorithms that aid in decision-making, digital surveillance, and facial recognition systems. Books like Cathy O'Neil's Weapons of Math Destruction (2016), Virginia Eubanks's Automating Inequality (2018), Ruha Benjamin's Race after Technology (2019), and Meredith Broussard's More than a Glitch (2023) have shown how government and corporate use of these technologies has served to reinforce inequalities, perpetuate injustices, and endanger civil liberties. Sinnreich and Gilbert's account of the of intersections of data, technology, and society is wide-ranging. After exploring such key concepts as metadata, unstructured data, and algorithmic bias, they devote chapters to cyber-physical systems and "smart" devices; biometric sensors and facial-recognition software; environmental surveillance and mixed reality; targeted propaganda and predictive policing; and policies designed to regulate data industries. The authors' account of these technologies is neither a sales pitch nor a screed; they seem genuinely fascinated by the phenomena they describe, and a strength of the book is how effectively they communicate that enthusiasm to the reader. At the same time, they recognize how these technologies serve powerful institutions, reinforce structures of oppression, and harm individuals. The book is chock-full of examples of new visioning and computing technology. One example is a strand of DNA created in a lab that, when analyzed by gene sequencing software, produces code that acts as a computer virus, infecting the machine doing the analysis. Another is a "visual microphone" that can analyze a video clip, measure the visible vibrations on the surface of objects in the recording, and use this data to produce sound waves that approximate the audio that was never captured. The authors supplement their discussions with insights gathered from interviews with a diverse array of experts, including law professors, tech scholars, cybersecurity experts, and activists. Along the way, they develop the concept of "algo-vision" (termed "informatic subjectivity" in their carrier wave article) to describe the experience of seeing ourselves through the lens of an algorithm. This may involve making changes to our language to avoid censorship on a social media platform, embedding algorithm-friendly keywords in our résumés, or responding to the demands of a smart device that we stand up several times a day. The authors' stated goal is to present a more-or-less comprehensive account of our networked, data-driven society that will be accessible to a popular audience. It's fair to say that they achieve this aim. But in their quest for breadth and approachability, they sacrifice depth and methodological specificity. Except for the concept of "algo-vision," the book is largely descriptive. It does not stray far from its journalistic sources, and the academic reader is likely to be disappointed by the lack of scholarly citations that could point the way to a deeper engagement with the matters discussed. As the authors move breathlessly from example to example, pausing briefly to provide descriptions, define tech terms, and offer a paragraph or two of expert commentary, the reader is left longing for a more in-depth analysis or theoretical formulation. It's worth comparing The Secret Life of Data to a book like Safiya Umoja Noble's Algorithms of Oppression (CH, Aug'18, 55-4507). Noble's book narrows its scope to the intersection of race and gender with technologies of internet searching. She also articulates her book as a Black feminist project, an approach that draws explicitly from feminist theories of technology, intersectional understandings of identity, and the author's lived experience as a Black woman. Noble acknowledges the foundational work of other scholars of internet searching, but asserts that her perspective and disciplinary approach leads her to ask new questions. Sinnreich and Gilbert acknowledge the limitations of their perspectives as "two middle-aged, cisgender, Ashkenazi Jewish men from New York City," and include the voices of outside experts. They don't say much, however, about the theoretical positions or disciplinary traditions from which they conduct their inquiry. The Secret Life of Data provides a broad, nontechnical, and highly readable introduction to the intersection of data, computing technologies, and contemporary society; it certainly has a place in an academic library's collection. Readings from the book will no doubt spur class discussions, but will probably need to be supplemented by more focused, academic sources. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. --Thomas A. Dodson, Southern Oregon University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
