Bill would end practice of sealing orders indefinitely to hide surveillance of Americans’ emails and other digital data
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., today reintroduced legislation to require public reporting and notice of the hundreds of thousands of criminal surveillance orders issued by courts each year. Those orders are typically sealed, indefinitely, keeping government surveillance hidden for years, even when the targets are never charged with any crime.
Unlike phone wiretaps or bank record subpoenas, there is no requirement for people to be notified when their emails, location, and web browsing records and other digital information is obtained by the government. The Government Surveillance Transparency Act would change that and bring transparency to court-ordered surveillance.
The Government Surveillance Transparency Act is cosponsored by Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Mike Lee, R-Utah. Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, are leading companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
“Law-abiding Americans deserve to know when and how their government tries to spy on them,” Wyden said. “This bill establishes a clear process to ensure the government can’t conduct surveillance operations in the dark by misusing sealing orders, with commonsense protections to make sure that active investigations aren’t compromised.”
“Montanans and Americans have the Constitutional right to protection from unreasonable searches and seizures,” Daines said. “I’m proud to work with my colleagues on the Government Surveillance Transparency Act to increase transparency and maintain integrity of investigations.”
“The government should not be able to read your emails, access your personal data, or surveil your digital life in secret,” Booker said. “But right now, the law lets them do exactly that. Congress has a responsibility to fix it, and it’s long overdue. Every American, every New Jerseyan, has a constitutional right to know when the government has searched their personal information. This bill makes that a reality and restores the transparency every American deserves.”
“This bill strikes an appropriate balance between protecting criminal investigations and notifying individuals when their private electronic communications are surveilled by the government,” Lee said. “Americans have a right against unreasonable searches and that includes in their digital communications and data. I am proud to cosponsor The Government Surveillance Transparency Act.”
“Americans deserve transparency when the government obtains their data, but current rules allow law enforcement agencies to keep these activities hidden indefinitely,” Lieu said. “The Government Surveillance Transparency Act prevents the government from keeping the public in the dark forever. By adopting common-sense transparency measures, our bill ensures Americans are eventually notified about subpoenas and court-ordered surveillance of their electronic data. I’m pleased to work with my colleagues in the House and Senate on this important, bipartisan legislation.”
“Americans should not be subjected to secret government surveillance that stays sealed forever, with no notice and no accountability,” Davidson said. “This bipartisan bill restores constitutional balance by requiring eventual notice and ensuring transparency without compromising legitimate law enforcement needs.”
The bill draws on transparency best practices from other areas of surveillance law and reforms pioneered by several federal courts nationwide. Specifically, the Government Surveillance Transparency Act would:
- Require law enforcement to notify targets about subpoenas and court ordered surveillance of their electronic data, similar to existing rules for wiretaps and bank subpoenas.
- Permit providers and other interested parties to challenge sealing orders, requiring the government to pay the challenger’s costs and legal fees if it loses.
- Require that surveillance applications and orders eventually be unsealed and docketed, ensuring they are available to the public and press once it no longer disrupts an investigation or puts individuals at risk.
- Require courts to publish online basic data about every surveillance order they authorize, while not revealing any personal information that could disrupt an active investigation.
- Require that law enforcement notify courts if they search the wrong person, house, or device pursuant to an order issued by the court or if a provider discloses data not authorized by the court.
- Require the Administrative Office of the Courts to expand the annual wiretap reports to include data on the surveillance of stored communications, interception of metadata, and gag orders.
- Provide grants to State and Tribal courts to implement the requirements of the bill.
Wyden has long been a champion for the privacy rights of Americans and opposed to unnecessary government surveillance. In July 2025, Wyden reintroduced legislation to protect Americans from warrantless government surveillance using cell-site simulators, such as Stingrays. In November 2023, Wyden introduced legislation to reform foreign and domestic surveillance laws and create strong privacy protections for law-abiding Americans. In November 2021, Wyden introduced legislation to end warrantless searches of Americans’ data from automobiles.
A summary of the bill is here.
A section-by-section summary of the bill is here.
The text of the bill is here.
A web version of this release is here.