NSO Group, a prominent and controversial developer of government spyware, released a new transparency report on Wednesday, signaling what it calls a “new phase of accountability.”
However, unlike previous reports, this one lacks critical details about the number of customers NSO has rejected, investigated, suspended, or terminated due to human rights abuses related to its surveillance tools. While the report makes promises regarding human rights and the implementation of customer controls, it provides no concrete evidence to back these claims. Experts and critics, who have been following NSO and the spyware industry for years, believe the report is part of the company’s strategy to persuade the U.S. government to remove it from the Entity List, enabling access to the U.S. market under new financial backers and leadership.
In the past year, a group of U.S. investors took over NSO, leading to significant organizational changes. These included the appointment of David Friedman, a former Trump official, as the new executive chairman; the departure of CEO Yaron Shohat; and the exit of Omri Lavie, the final remaining founder still involved with the company, as reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Friedman stated in the report, “When NSO’s products are used by the right hands in the right countries, the world becomes a much safer place. This will always be our primary mission.” However, the report does not specify any countries where NSO currently operates.
The transparency report for 2025 provides fewer details compared to previous years.
In a previous transparency report for 2024, NSO revealed it had opened three investigations into potential misuse. While the company did not disclose the names of its customers, it stated that it severed ties with one customer and applied “alternative remediation measures” to another. These measures included human rights training, monitoring the customer’s activities, and requesting additional details on how the customer uses the system. No information was provided about the third investigation.
NSO also reported rejecting over $20 million in new business opportunities during 2024 due to concerns about human rights.
NSO’s latest transparency report omits the total number of customers, a statistic that had been included in previous reports.
Scott-Railton expressed disappointment, saying, “I was expecting information, numbers. But this report offers nothing that allows outsiders to verify NSO’s claims, which is typical of a company with a decade-long history of making claims that later proved to be misleading.”