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The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts will begin publicly disclosing how often judges approve government use of hacking tools and spyware in lawful wiretap investigations, adding a new "spyware/hacking" category to its annual Wiretap Report. The change will first appear in the report covering 2028 activity, scheduled for publication in 2029, and will track use of network investigative techniques (NITs) for real-time interception of communications.
The new reporting is expected to cover surveillance targeting calls and messages, including encrypted services such as Signal and WhatsApp, but it will not include remote device hacking used to collect stored data because those actions fall under separate search-warrant authorities. The move follows years of pressure from Senator Ron Wyden and has been welcomed by privacy groups including the EFF and ACLU as a long-sought transparency measure over government hacking practices that have reportedly been used by the FBI since at least 1998 without public accounting.
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Public data showed that Italy had 4,321 spyware targets in 2023. The references cite Italy as an example of a country already publishing detailed public spyware-use statistics.
A May 2021 document proposed guidelines for possible FBI use of NSO Group technology and referenced criminal matters where personnel believed the tool might apply. Court records cited later did not establish that Pegasus was actually used in an FBI investigation.
Senator Ron Wyden had sought public transparency around government spyware and hacking use since 2017. The later judiciary reporting change is described as following or reflecting that advocacy.
The FBI has used hacking techniques and spyware since at least 1998, according to the reporting. The references note there had been no public dataset counting how often those tools were deployed.
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts decided to begin publicly reporting how often judges authorize hacking tools and spyware for wiretaps, adding a new spyware/hacking category to Wiretap Reports. The reporting will cover network investigative techniques used for real-time interception, while excluding remote hacking used to obtain stored data under separate warrant authorities.
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Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Greg Casar have asked the U.S. Government Accountability Office to investigate how federal agencies use hacking tools and spyware against Americans, seeking an unclassified public report on the scope, frequency, safeguards, and legal processes behind those operations. The request targets agencies including the FBI, DEA, ICE Homeland Security Investigations, and the Secret Service, and argues that federal law enforcement has used such capabilities for more than 25 years with far less transparency than exists for traditional wiretap authorities. The lawmakers asked the GAO to examine how agencies acquire and secure hacking tools, whether government personnel have misused them, what is disclosed to courts when warrants are sought, and how Rule 41 authorities are used for court-approved hacking. The push comes amid broader scrutiny of U.S. government spyware practices, including ICE's acknowledged work with spyware firm **Paragon**, and follows concerns that stolen government hacking tools have previously been repurposed by foreign adversaries against **Ukraine** and cryptocurrency users.
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The **Trump administration** is moving to loosen long-standing restrictions on sharing domestic law enforcement information with the **CIA and other intelligence agencies**, potentially opening access to databases containing hundreds of millions of records, including FBI case files, banking records, and investigative material involving law-abiding Americans. Officials said the changes are being justified as part of efforts to target drug cartels and other transnational criminal groups that the administration has designated as terrorists, but the process has reportedly unfolded with **little transparency, limited legal debate, and minimal notice to Congress**, raising significant civil-liberties concerns. The broader policy debate over U.S. surveillance powers is reflected in parallel criticism of **Section 702** reauthorization efforts, with privacy advocates arguing that existing authorities already enable excessive collection and weak safeguards for Americans' data. Proposed reforms in the **SAFE Act** are being presented as an attempt to impose stronger limits on surveillance and intelligence access, underscoring concern that the government is expanding intelligence collection and information-sharing authorities faster than oversight and privacy protections are being strengthened.
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