US courts will soon reveal how often judges authorize the government to deploy spyware and hacking tools for real-time surveillance. Starting with the 2028 Wiretap Report—published in 2029 by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts—these disclosures will include a new category for network investigation techniques, commonly known as NITs. The courts have long reported wiretap authorizations, the crimes being investigated, and whether orders came from state or federal judges, but never tracked spyware use separately. This gap meant researchers couldn't precisely measure how often the FBI and other agencies have used hacking tools, despite doing so for decades.
The transparency will have boundaries. The reports will count spyware intercepting calls and messages in real time—including encrypted apps like Signal and WhatsApp—but exclude tools that physically breach a device to extract photos, files, location data, or stored information. That second category is legally classified as a search rather than a wiretap. Courts must update their forms and procedures before new figures can appear in official reports.
The change addresses longtime pressure from Senator Ron Wyden and marks a win for privacy advocates. Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, noted that researchers have been working with estimates alone. With official numbers, privacy organizations and researchers can finally assess whether spyware is used sparingly or at a scale far larger than the public has realized.