At the Black Hat hacker convention in 2013, Former NSA director Keith Alexander asked hackers to help the NSA come up with ways to protect Americans' privacy and civil liberties.
"How do we start this discussion on defending our nation and protecting our civil liberties and privacy?" Alexander asked the Las Vegas crowd. "The reason I'm here is because you may have some ideas of how we can do it better. We need to hear those ideas."
Alexander asked the attendees–and, by way of the NSA website, all Americans–to email suggestions to ideas@nsa.gov. Here's video of the keynote.
VICE News later filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with the agency to find out if anyone wrote.
It took the NSA nearly two years to respond. But respond, they did.
"Last week, the NSA turned over 14 emails sent to ideas@nsa.gov, the grand total of what it received after Alexander's call for proposals," VICE News reporter Jason Leopold tells Boing Boing.
"The NSA protected the privacy of the individuals who submitted the emails by redacting their names."
One person who submitted an idea on July 31, 2013 said, "Keep fighting the good fight not everyone is against you."
Here's Every Email the NSA Got After Asking Americans for Tips on How to Protect Privacy [VICE]
