--- title: New NSA Privacy Chief Promises Transparency description: In a Q&A online, Rebecca Richards promised a new era in transparency at the United States’ eavesdropping agency. canonical: https://time.com/3603680/nsa-privacy-chief-transparency/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-24T22:13:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:20:47.806Z article:section: Politics og:title: New NSA Privacy Chief Promises Transparency og:description: In a Q&A online, Rebecca Richards promised a new era in transparency at the United States’ eavesdropping agency. og:url: https://time.com/3603680/nsa-privacy-chief-transparency/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee6b3727a3a75a8e/69869db255a8594c2ca81fad/ap178264685062.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1449 og:image:height: 815 og:image:alt: NSA Surveillance-Privacy Report og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New NSA Privacy Chief Promises Transparency twitter:description: In a Q&A online, Rebecca Richards promised a new era in transparency at the United States’ eavesdropping agency. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee6b3727a3a75a8e/69869db255a8594c2ca81fad/ap178264685062.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New NSA Privacy Chief Promises Transparency > Sponsored content. 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Patrick Semansky—AP  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Nov 24, 2014 10:13 PM UTC The National Security Agency’s newly appointed Civil Liberties & Privacy Officer Rebecca Richards [said](http://icontherecord.tumblr.com/page/2) Monday in an online Q& A she hopes to inject a sense of transparency into the secretive spy agency. “Until somewhat recently, relatively little information about NSA was public. And the information that was made available rarely discussed the safeguards in place to protect civil liberties and privacy,” Richards said. “One of my goals is to share what NSA does to protect civil liberties and privacy. This will take time, but we must start somewhere.” Richards conducted an online question and answer session Monday through the website of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Richards position was create earlier this year following recommendations from the White House on privacy reforms within the NSA. Those recommendations were made in response to revelations of privacy violations contained in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Much of her Q&A was little more than a defense of the agency but Richards did identify her four primary goals as privacy chief. 1. Advise NSA leadership including the director. 2. Build systematic and holistic civil liberties and privacy processes. 3. Improve civil liberties and privacy protections through research, education, and training. 4. Increase transparency. Richards also revealed that the NSA is preparing to launch a privacy and civil liberties internship or work exchange program as part of its privacy initiative. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3603680/nsa-privacy-chief-transparency/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3603680/nsa-privacy-chief-transparency/"},"headline":"New NSA Privacy Chief Promises Transparency","datePublished":"2014-11-24T22:13:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:20:47.806Z","description":"In a Q&A online, Rebecca Richards promised a new era in transparency at the United States’ eavesdropping agency","url":"https://time.com/3603680/nsa-privacy-chief-transparency/","keywords":["intelligence","NSA","Edward Snowden","privacy","National Security"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee6b3727a3a75a8e/69869db255a8594c2ca81fad/ap178264685062.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee6b3727a3a75a8e/69869db255a8594c2ca81fad/ap178264685062.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NSA Surveillance-Privacy Report","caption":"NSA Surveillance-Privacy Report","creditText":"Patrick Semansky—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/intelligence/","name":"intelligence"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3603680/nsa-privacy-chief-transparency/","name":"New NSA Privacy Chief Promises Transparency"}}]}] ```