NSO Group releases transparency report amid U.S. Entity List push

On Wednesday, Israeli government spyware developer NSO Group released a new transparency report, framing the publication as a new phase of accountability. The release comes as the company undergoes a transition under new financial backers and executives, including the appointment of David Friedman as executive chairman, the departure of former CEO Yaron Shohat, and the exit of founder Omri Lavie. Experts and critics state the report is part of a strategic campaign to lobby the U.S. government to remove NSO Group from the Entity List—a U.S. trade restriction list—in an effort to enter the U.S. market.

However, the report covering 2025 lacks concrete evidence supporting NSO Group’s promises to respect human rights. Unlike its previous annual disclosures, this latest document omits specific details regarding how many customers were rejected, investigated, suspended, or terminated due to human rights abuses involving its surveillance tools. Past reports from the company explicitly detailed these operational and financial metrics:

• In 2024, NSO Group opened three investigations of potential misuse and rejected more than $20 million in new business opportunities due to human rights concerns.
• In 2022 and 2023, the company suspended or terminated six government customers, which resulted in a revenue loss of $57 million.
• Since 2016, NSO Group disconnected five customers, resulting in an estimated loss of revenue of $100 million, and discontinued five engagements due to human rights concerns.

Digital rights advocates argue the omission of these metrics makes the claims unverifiable. Natalia Krapiva, senior tech-legal counsel at Access Now, a digital rights organization, criticized the report as an attempt to obscure ongoing issues, stating, “This is nothing but another attempt at window dressing and the U.S. government should not be taken for a fool,” while noting that spyware companies frequently publish empty transparency reports while abuses continue. John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at The Citizen Lab, a human rights organization, also noted that the document lacks the necessary data to verify NSO Group’s assertions, pointing to the company’s history of making claims that later turned out to be misrepresentation.

The company’s push to lift restrictions intensified after President Donald Trump took office again last year, following ongoing lobbying since the U.S. government added NSO to the Entity List. Separately, in late December, the Trump administration lifted sanctions against three executives tied to Intellexa, a spyware consortium, amid shifting regulatory actions in the U.S. regarding spyware abuses and human rights abuses.

Why it matters

The report is a strategic move to re-enter the U.S. market, but the absence of verifiable data suggests the company’s new phase of accountability may be more about optics than operational change.