A new bill in Congress would force federal agencies to get warrants before using AI to trawl Americans’ digital lives — a change that could ripple through the crypto world, where custody, analytics and third-party services touch virtually every transaction.
What’s happening
- Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert introduced the Surveillance Accountability Act on April 23, 2026. The measure would amend Title 18 of the U.S. Code to establish a broad warrant requirement for government searches, close the so-called “third‑party doctrine” loophole, and create a private right of action so people can sue the government for Fourth Amendment violations.
- Massie and Boebert held a press conference at the Capitol to announce the bill; Massie tweeted that searches would have to be “based on probable cause, in accordance with the 4th Amendment.”
Why proponents say it’s needed
- Naomi Brockwell, founder of the privacy nonprofit Ludlow Institute and a drafter of the bill, told Decrypt that AI has radically expanded surveillance capabilities. “Now that we have AI, that idea of limitation is completely out the window,” she said. “AI can sort people, rank them, adjust credit scores, and use all of this data to paint intimate profiles and preemptively conduct law enforcement.”
- Supporters argue the bill updates Fourth Amendment protections for an era when nearly everything we do touches third parties — from banks and phone companies to cloud providers and crypto exchanges.
The legal thread the bill targets
- The proposal confronts the third‑party doctrine, a legal rule stemming from two 1970s Supreme Court cases, United States v. Miller and Smith v. Maryland. Those rulings held people don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy for information they voluntarily give to third parties, like banks or phone companies.
- Brockwell notes those decisions arose before the internet and have since been stretched far beyond their original narrow contexts. “Fast forward to 2026, every single thing we do has a third‑party involved,” she said. “The entire internet relies on third‑parties, and governments have decided that when they want to search someone, they no longer have to get approval from a judge.”
Other surveillance types the bill addresses
- The legislation specifically calls out biometric surveillance and automated license plate readers (ALPRs). Brockwell invoked the “mosaic theory” of privacy: while a single public snapshot of your car might be innocuous, tens of thousands of location points stitched together can amount to invasive tracking — exactly what ALPR systems can do.
Industry, AI and politics
- A lucrative market exists for AI-driven surveillance tools, from Palantir-style analytics to face-matching firms like Clearview AI. The concern sharpened earlier this year when Anthropic publicly clashed with the Trump administration over whether U.S. government access to its AI systems could enable mass surveillance and unrestricted military use.
- The bill reportedly has bipartisan interest and is framed by proponents as complementary to other reform efforts — notably Rep. Warren Davidson’s and Sen. Ron Wyden’s push to overhaul Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits certain warrantless intelligence collection.
Arguments for and against
- Critics warn that blanket warrant requirements could slow urgent investigations. Supporters counter that the point is restoring judicial oversight, not blocking legitimate law enforcement. “If law enforcement wants to go after someone, they can absolutely do that. They just need a warrant,” Brockwell said.
- The office of Rep. Massie did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt.
What it could mean for crypto users
- While the bill doesn’t mention blockchain explicitly, its changes to the third‑party doctrine could affect how agencies access data held by banks, centralized exchanges, custodial wallet providers, analytics firms and other intermediaries that dominate much of the crypto ecosystem. If adopted, agencies might need warrants to compel transaction histories or identity-linked records from those third parties — potentially raising the bar for on‑chain and off‑chain surveillance tied to crypto activity.
Next steps
- The bill will need to pass both chambers of Congress and survive potential legal challenges to become law. Watch for further debate in committee and follow any updates from the sponsors and privacy advocates as the conversation over AI, surveillance and digital privacy intensifies.
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