US federal courts are about to publicly disclose how often law enforcement agencies use spyware and hacking tools to intercept real-time communications. The Administrative Office of the US Courts confirmed to TechCrunch that it will officially add a new “spyware/hacking” category to its annual Wiretap Report, creating the first public record of government hacking since the FBI began using these methods back in 1998.
The new tracking covers what federal authorities internally call network investigative techniques, or NITs. For almost two decades, the federal judiciary has published annual reports detailing judge-authorized wiretaps. This includes breaking down numbers by jurisdiction, crime type, and whether state or federal judges ordered them. However, it never specified when agents relied on hacking tools to tap into encrypted calls or text messages on apps like Signal and WhatsApp.
How the new tracking system works and its limitations
Under the updated framework, court reporting forms across the country will be updated to log every time a judge approves spyware for a live intercept. But this new metric applies strictly to real-time wiretaps where agents monitor ongoing communications.
It will not cover remote phone searches where authorities hack into a device to extract stored files, photos, or location data. Those operations fall under a completely different legal process governing search warrants rather than live wiretap authorizations.
Privacy advocates celebrate a long-sought transparency win
Lawmakers and civil liberties organizations have strongly welcomed the move. Senator Ron Wyden noted that the public has remained largely in the dark about federal monitoring. Wyden has campaigned for surveillance transparency since 2017 and recently reintroduced his Government Surveillance Transparency Act.
Privacy experts emphasize that public data will make a massive difference for oversight. Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, pointed out that hard numbers will prevent authorities from denying spyware usage, making it difficult to claim these tools are deployed surgically if the reports end up showing tens of thousands of instances. Brett Max Kaufman of the ACLU similarly called the change a long-overdue step toward better surveillance policy.
Rollout timeline and international context
While the decision is final, the public will have to wait a few years to see the current figures. Court administrators must first update reporting forms and procedures across all federal and state jurisdictions. This means data collection will formally begin with the 2028 dataset—the first official report containing spyware numbers will be made public in 2029.
The move brings the US closer to countries like Italy, which already publishes public spyware metrics—logging 4,321 target uses in 2023. While the 2029 release is still a long way off, it will finally give lawmakers, researchers, and the public concrete evidence regarding the true scale of federal hacking in America.
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