The Obama administration plans to release statistics that could shed light on the scope of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.

In a blog post late Thursday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he would soon release data on the total number of secret court orders to communications providers and the number of people targeted in those orders.

The government plans to continue releasing the statistics in annual reports, Clapper said.

He explained that he decided to release the reports to comply with President Obama’s directive to declassify as much information as possible about the surveillance programs while protecting national security.