Tennessee wiretapping and electronic surveillance law (including cellular and cordless telephone recording)
Tenn. Wiretap Act
Communications
Tennessee is a one-party consent state: a person who is a party to a wire, oral, or electronic communication, or who has one party's prior consent, may intercept it unless the purpose is a criminal or tortious act. A 2024 amendment repealed the statute's civil damages action and declared that the law does not restrict businesses from disclosing communications to vendors or using vendor cookies and pixels on websites and apps, a response to web-tracking wiretap suits.
- Where
- Tennessee
- Citation
- Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 39-13-601, 39-13-602, 39-13-604 (former § 39-13-603 repealed 2024)
- Status
- In force
- Last amended
- 2024-05-28
- Enforced by
- District attorneys (criminal prosecution)
- People can sue
- No
- Penalties
- Unlawful interception, disclosure, or use is a Class D felony (§ 39-13-602). Recording a cellular or cordless call without one party's consent is a Class A misdemeanor, or a Class E felony if the recording is knowingly published or distributed (§ 39-13-604(c)). The statutory civil damages action (former § 39-13-603) was repealed effective May 28, 2024.
- Applies to
- Any person who intercepts, discloses, or uses wire, oral, or electronic communications
- Providers of electronic communication services to the public (limits on divulging communications in transit)
- Anyone recording or disseminating cellular or cordless telephone communications
Practices it requires
- Do not intentionally intercept, or disclose or use the contents of, a wire, oral, or electronic communication obtained by unlawful interception.Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-601(a)(1)
- Public electronic communication service providers may not intentionally divulge the contents of communications in transmission except with consent or as otherwise authorized.Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-601(c)
- Do not record or disseminate a communication between cellular phones, or between a cellular phone and a landline or cordless phone, without the consent of at least one party.Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-604(b)
Other duties
- Interception is lawful when the interceptor is a party to the communication or one party has given prior consent, unless done to commit a criminal or tortious act.Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-601(b)(5)
- The law does not restrict businesses from disclosing communications to vendors in the normal course of business or using vendor technologies such as cookies and pixels on websites and mobile apps; parents may monitor a minor child's internet use on a computer they own.Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-601(d) · From 2024-05-28
Sources
- Official text
- 2024 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 1045 (SB 2221), adding § 39-13-601(d) and repealing § 39-13-603, Tennessee Secretary of State
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-601 (2025 code text and history, Justia)
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-602 (penalty, Justia)
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-603 (repealed, Justia)
- Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-13-604 (cellular and cordless telephones, Justia)
Checked against these sources on 2026-09-25 by research agent (Claude), primary sources.
Unverified: Original effective date of the 1994 act (1994 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 964) not confirmed, so effective_date is null. | The May 28, 2024 effective date for the 2024 changes comes from the code publisher's repeal note; the act says sections 2 and 3 took effect on becoming law. | Whether a civil remedy for unlawful interception survives elsewhere in Tennessee law (for example Title 40, chapter 6, part 3, or common-law invasion of privacy) was not researched; federal 18 U.S.C. § 2520 still applies.
Research reference, not legal advice.