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Securing Society Through Data Kindness: How Cooperation Becomes Our Best Defense with Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert
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Episode Description:
Every device around you is collecting data about you and everyone you interact with. Amazon Echo recordings are being subpoenaed in murder trials. Period tracking apps are being used to prosecute women. Ancestry websites are revealing family secrets. We're participants in the largest social experiment in human history—and we never opted in.
In this episode of SecureTalk, host Justin Beals sits down with Dr. Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert, co-authors of "The Secret Life of Data," to explore a revolutionary approach to digital security: data kindness.
🎯 KEY TOPICS COVERED: • Why our biggest security threat is social fragmentation, not just technical vulnerabilities • How tech companies profit from division (anger drives 5x more engagement than approval) • The food allergy transformation: how society changed practices organically in 20 years • Practical data kindness: simple actions that rebuild digital trust • Why cooperation is our best defense in an age of surveillance • How to reclaim agency over your digital life
🚨 CRITICAL INSIGHTS:
- We can't rely on tech companies (profit over people) or Congress (no data protection laws passed)
- Change must happen from the ground up through shared cultural practices
- Simple acts like unplugging smart devices for guests or consulting family before DNA uploads matter
- Divided societies are vulnerable societies—cooperation is a security strategy
👥 ABOUT THE GUESTS:
Dr. Aram Sinnreich serves as a Professor and Graduate Director within the Communication Studies department at American University’s School of Communication.
His research addresses the convergence of culture, law, and technology, focusing particularly on topics such as surveillance and privacy, intellectual property, digital rights, digital culture, democracy, governance, and music.
Sinnreich has authored five books: Mashed Up (2010), The Piracy Crusade (2013), The Essential Guide to Intellectual Property (2019), the science fiction novel A Second Chance for Yesterday (2023; coauthored with Rachel Hope Cleves as R.A. Sinn), and The Secret Life of Data (2024; coauthored with Jesse Gilbert).
Additionally, his writing has appeared in various publications including The New York Times, Billboard, Wired, The Daily Beast, and Rolling Stone. He is a core faculty member of the SOC doctoral program and the MA in Media, Technology & Democracy, regularly collaborating with SOC graduate students on research publications and projects.
Jesse Gilbert is an interdisciplinary artist focused on the convergence of visual art, sound, and software design through his firm, Dark Matter Media. He previously served as the founding Chair of the Media Technology department at Woodbury University and has taught interactive software design at CalArts and UC San Diego.
Since 2010, Gilbert's work has revolved around his innovative software, SpectralGL, which is an interactive listening instrument that creates real-time visual landscapes in response to sound. Drawing on his background as a composer, sound designer, and lifelong technologist, his creative output investigates the phenomenological aspects of listening through improvisation and collaborative dialogue. His work has been showcased at numerous concert halls, festivals, and projection-mapped installations worldwide.
In 2007, Gilbert co-founded Dark Matter Media LLC to facilitate his independent creative projects and provide consultancy on emerging technologies across various public and private environments. From 2011 to 2017, he held the founding Chair position in the Department of Media Technology at Woodbury University and taught interactive software design at both CalArts and UC San Diego.
After documenting the problems in their first book, Aram and Jesse recently published insights in Time Magazine and are working on a new book about building cooperative societies with kindness embedded in technology design.
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RESOURCES:
Sinnreich, A., & Gilbert, J. (2025, April 3). How to be kind in a world that's always monitoring you. Time Magazine. https://time.com/7273469/data-monitoring-kindness-essay/
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