Senator Ron Wyden recently informed his senate colleagues that major U.S. carriers AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon had previously failed to notify senators about government surveillance requests targeting their phones, despite contractual obligations explicitly requiring such notifications.
Widely regarded as a seasoned advocate for privacy issues and a veteran member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Wyden detailed the findings of an investigation led by his staff in a letter sent to fellow senators. According to Wyden, these leading cellular providers had neglected their duty to inform senators of legal requests—some originating from the White House—to obtain their call records and location data. Wyden emphasized that these notifications were explicitly mandated under updated contracts put in place following legislation enacted by Congress in 2020 to protect Senate communications held by outside providers.
Although the senator confirmed in the letter that AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon had since corrected their practices and were now providing the required notifications, he revealed that at least one undisclosed carrier had confirmed it had provided Senate data to law enforcement without notifying the Senate.
The alert followed a rising concern over executive branch surveillance activities after a 2024 Inspector General report disclosed that the Trump administration had secretly accessed phone and messaging records of 43 congressional aides and at least two House lawmakers between 2017 and 2018. This included surveillance of Adam Schiff, who was then the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. The phone operators receiving those requests were legally prohibited from informing their users due to gag orders imposed by the issuing authorities.
Wyden strongly criticized the threat such surveillance posed to the separation of powers, stressing that secret access to the communications records of lawmakers seriously undermines congressional independence and their constitutional ability to effectively exercise oversight.
An AT&T spokesperson said in response that the company is currently complying with its obligations under the latest Senate contract that began the previous June, and that no legal demands involving Senate offices had been received under that arrangement. However, AT&T did not clarify whether it received requests before this current agreement took effect. Verizon and T-Mobile declined to comment on the matter.
Wyden also highlighted carriers such as Google Fi, US Mobile, and the cellular startup Cape, noting that all three recently confirmed their policies include notifying customers of surveillance requests wherever legally permitted. Notably, US Mobile and Cape adopted these notification procedures upon direct outreach from Wyden’s office. US Mobile confirmed that no known surveillance requests targeting senators or their aides had been received.
The Senator’s revelations underscore vulnerabilities regarding the surveillance protections in place for legislative communications. The current protections apply solely to officially issued Senate phones; lawmakers’ personal or campaign devices remain outside the scope of these agreements. Wyden’s letter thus encouraged his colleagues to strongly consider adopting carriers that ensure customer notification of surveillance demands.
