Bill > S3918

This bill, the Government Surveillance Transparency Act of 2026, aims to increase transparency and accountability in government surveillance by requiring that individuals eventually be notified when criminal surveillance orders, which are court orders authorizing various forms of electronic monitoring and data collection, are issued against them. It reforms the use of non-disclosure orders, which prevent providers of communication services from informing their customers about government requests for information, by limiting their duration and establishing stricter conditions for their issuance and extension, and it prohibits the indefinite sealing of these surveillance orders, meaning they cannot be kept secret forever. The bill also mandates that detailed information about these orders, including their type, the crimes being investigated, and their duration, be made publicly available in a machine-readable format, with exceptions only for specific circumstances that would endanger lives or jeopardize investigations, and it establishes reporting requirements for judges and agencies involved in surveillance to track its use. Furthermore, it provides grants to state and tribal courts to help them implement these new transparency measures.