U.S. courts to publish counts of government spyware wiretaps starting in 2029

Although the FBI has used hacking tools since the late 1990s, no public tally of their deployment existed until now. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, which produces yearly Wiretap Reports, announced that beginning with the 2028 report—released in 2029—it will record how many times judges authorize network investigating techniques, the agency’s label for spyware-based real-time taps. The new figures will detail interceptions of calls and messages on platforms like Signal and WhatsApp, while excluding remote hacks that extract stored files such as images or location data.

Democratic senator Ron Wyden, a longtime proponent of surveillance transparency, praised the move and urged Congress to pass his Government Surveillance Transparency Act. Privacy experts including Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation said the data will help hold the government accountable, and ACLU senior counsel Brett Max Kaufman called the step "long-overdue." Other countries, such as Italy, already publish similar spyware usage statistics.