As is well known by now, the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States has been snooping -- without warrant -- on all electronic communication by foreigners (based on the idea that every foreigner is a potential terrorist). Now, it occurs to me that this data belongs to the American people, and they have the right to insist that the NSA extract the full fruits of this data and not use it only for counter-terrorism. For this purpose, I suggest the NSA hold a competition in which people all over the world will send in suggestions on how the data collected by the NSA should be mined for purposes other than counter-terrorism. A board of judges selected, perhaps, by the American Civil Liberties Union will rank the suggestions. The NSA will then mine the data as directed by, say, the top fifty suggestions and publish the results, without revealing any personal information. (I don't see why the NSA would object to this extra work; it would not interfere with what the NSA has been doing.)
So, what would you like to know from the NSA's surveillance stash? Would you like to know how a scientist who has just discovered something exciting expresses her excitement to a colleague? How about poems in lovers' letters? Wouldn't you like to read them (as long as the lovers' anonymity is not breached)? If you are a sociologist, would you like to know how often children email their parents and how the frequency varies with age? Would you like to know how the emigrant's heartbreak is expressed in letters back home? Would you like to know the secret family recipes that mothers send their daughters? What would you like to know about all those foreigners that the NSA sees as potential terrorists?
