Surveillance Accountability Act
United StatesLow threat- Introduced
- Passed House
- Passed Senate
- Became Law
Stage 1 of 4: Introduced
Would require a probable-cause warrant for government access to third-party data and let people seek redress when federal officials violate their Fourth Amendment rights.
Latest update
Introduced
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This bill is still moving, so there's still time to lend your support.
Contact LawmakersWhat it does
H.R.8470 would require a warrant issued on probable cause for searches that significantly intrude on privacy or security. It expressly covers data, metadata, and personal information held by banks, telecommunications companies, internet providers, cloud services, and data brokers, regardless of whether the company cooperates. Public-source and consent exceptions could not justify systematic warrantless collection of biometric identifiers, license-plate images, vehicle metadata, or movement patterns. The bill would also create a federal cause of action against people acting under federal authority, including federal employees other than the President and Vice President, for Fourth Amendment violations, with courts able to award attorney’s fees.
What’s at stake
The government increasingly obtains intimate records from companies or commercial brokers instead of seeking a warrant from a judge. This bill would close that route across financial, communications, location, biometric, browsing, and other digital records, while limiting the claim that exposure in public authorizes automated tracking. Its cause of action supplies a remedy where immunity doctrines have often left victims unable to hold federal officials accountable.
Our take
We support restoring the warrant requirement across modern digital records and attaching a practical remedy to violations. Privacy should not disappear because information passes through a company, and government should not be able to purchase its way around the Fourth Amendment. The broad protection for third-party data and the individual cause of action are the provisions that must survive committee review.
Timeline
IntroducedLatest
Sponsor
Thomas Massie (R-KY)
Cosponsors (1)
Lauren Boebert (R-CO)
Committee
Judiciary Committee
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