U.S. Courts to Publish Spyware Use Data Starting in 2029

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts announced that the annual Wiretap Report will include a new “spyware/hacking” category covering wiretaps conducted with network investigative techniques (NITs). Data for this category will be collected for the 2028 reporting year and released in the 2029 Wiretap Report. The change will disclose how many times federal judges authorize the use of spyware to intercept real-time communications such as calls and messages on platforms like Signal and WhatsApp. It will not cover searches that remotely extract stored data from a device.

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Federal law-enforcement agencies, notably the FBI, have employed hacking tools and spyware since at least 1998, but no public tally of their use has existed. Traditional Wiretap Reports already break down court-authorized wiretaps by type (audio, oral, electronic) and by the crimes investigated, but they omit NIT-based taps.

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• No historical U.S. figures exist for NIT-based wiretaps; the first public count will appear in 2029.

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• Italy published detailed spyware use data for 2023, reporting 4,321 targets.

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• Apple’s recent global threat notifications have reached users in 110 countries, illustrating the worldwide spread of government-used spyware, though these figures are unrelated to U.S. court authorizations.

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Senator Ron Wyden praised the policy shift, saying the American public has been kept in the dark about government surveillance methods and urging Congress to pass his Government Surveillance Transparency Act.

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Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called the forthcoming statistics a “huge win” for privacy advocates, noting that they will allow analysts to move beyond speculation about the scale of spyware deployment.

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Public reporting will give lawmakers, journalists, and civil-society groups a concrete baseline for assessing whether spyware is used selectively or on a large scale. Concrete numbers can strengthen accountability: if the reported tally is high, officials will find it harder to claim that spyware is a “surgical tool.” The move also aligns U.S. practice with that of other democracies, such as Italy, which already disclose similar data.

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Before the 2029 report can be released, the Administrative Office must update reporting forms and procedures to capture the new category. Lawmakers are expected to consider the Government Surveillance Transparency Act, which would further expand disclosure requirements.

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• “The American people remain largely in the dark about the different ways that the government is spying on them,” — Ron Wyden, told democratic senator

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• “Up until now, we have only been able to guess at the size of the problem,” — Eva Galperin

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• “Being able to point to a report saying that spyware was used X number of times will help with accountability, especially if it turns out that number is quite high,” — Eva Galperin

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