Nebraska

Nebraska Recording Laws (2026): One-Party Consent Rules

By Recording Law Editorial TeamPublished June 5, 202611 min read

Nebraska is a one-party consent state. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. 86-290(2)(c), anyone taking part in a conversation may record it without telling the other people, as long as the recording is not made to commit a crime or a tort. Illegal recording is a Class IV felony, and victims can sue under Neb. Rev. Stat. 86-297.

Nebraska recording law at a glance

Question	Answer
Consent rule	One-party consent
Main statute	Neb. Rev. Stat. 86-290(2)(c)
When it is illegal	Recording a conversation you are not part of, or recording for a criminal or tortious purpose
Criminal penalty	Class IV felony: up to 2 years prison, $10,000 fine, 12 months post-release supervision
Civil penalty	Neb. Rev. Stat. 86-297: greater of $100/day or $10,000, plus attorney fees (no punitive damages)
Hidden cameras	Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-311.08 (intrusion, intimate-area recording, distribution)
Recording police	Not clearly established in the 8th Circuit (Molina v. City of St. Louis, 2023)

This guide covers the questions most people actually ask: recording in-person conversations, recording phone calls, hidden cameras, and the penalties for getting it wrong. For any topic in depth, jump to the full Nebraska guides further down.

Recording in-person conversations in Nebraska

You can record a face-to-face conversation in Nebraska as long as you are part of it. Neb. Rev. Stat. 86-290(2)(c) says it is lawful for a person who is not acting under color of law to record a wire, electronic, or oral communication when that person is a party to it, or when one party has given consent. You do not have to tell anyone you are recording.

The one limit that catches people is the purpose test. The shield disappears if the recording is made for the purpose of committing any criminal or tortious act in violation of state or federal law. So recording a conversation to document harassment, preserve a verbal agreement, or protect yourself is fine. Recording the same conversation to extort money, blackmail someone, or set up a defamation claim is not, and it exposes you to the full Class IV felony plus civil damages.

The Nebraska Supreme Court confirmed this participant-recorder rule in State v. Manchester, 213 Neb. 670, 331 N.W.2d 776 (1983). A quick word of caution on the statutes: Neb. Rev. Stat. 86-291 is sometimes wrongly cited as the one-party rule. It is not. Section 86-291 is the court-ordered wiretap statute used by prosecutors, and ordinary people cannot rely on it. Your protection lives only in Section 86-290(2)(c). This tracks the federal one-party floor under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act at 18 U.S.C. 2511(2)(d). It is the opposite of two-party consent states like California, Florida, and Illinois, where every person must agree.

Microphone on a gooseneck arm at an empty witness stand in a paneled Nebraska courtroom

Recording phone calls in Nebraska

Phone calls follow the same one-party rule. A phone call is a wire or electronic communication under Neb. Rev. Stat. 86-290, so if you are on the call you can record it without telling the other person, unless you are doing it for a criminal or tortious purpose. This covers landline calls, cell calls, and VoIP services like Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet, including the audio of a video call.

The trap is interstate calls. When a call reaches a two-party consent state, the stricter state's law usually controls, so a Nebraskan calling a number in California should follow California's all-party rule under Penal Code 632. The good news is that the practical risk is narrow: all five of Nebraska's neighbors (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Wyoming) plus Colorado are also one-party states. The friction comes mainly with calls into strict states such as California, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

Three smartphones arranged around a blank document on a wooden desk

For a deeper breakdown of cell, landline, VoIP, business, and interstate call rules, see the full Nebraska phone call recording guide.

Hidden cameras, doorbells, and nanny cams

Silent video on your own property is generally legal in Nebraska. Ring doorbells, exterior security cameras, and nanny cams pointed at common areas of your home are not banned. The line is drawn by Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-311.08, which (after the 2025 consolidation discussed below) makes it a crime to:

Intrude on someone in a place of solitude or seclusion such as a restroom, locker room, shower, dressing room, or fitting room. This is a Class I misdemeanor for a first offense and a Class IV felony for a repeat.
Record the intimate area of another person without their knowledge and consent. This is a Class IV felony.
Distribute an intimate recording. This climbs to a Class IIA felony (up to 20 years), and a Class II felony (1 to 50 years) for repeat offenders.

Two practical complications come up constantly. First, audio. A camera that captures conversations when you are not present, and where no one being recorded has consented, can violate Neb. Rev. Stat. 86-290 even though you own the device. A nanny cam that records the babysitter alone with your child is a good example. Second, aim. Cameras pointed into a neighbor's private space, or into any place of seclusion, are off-limits no matter who owns them.

Broadcast camcorder on a tripod in an empty studio

For more, see the Nebraska hidden camera and voyeurism guide, the video recording guide, and the security camera guide.

Penalties for illegal recording in Nebraska

Nebraska treats illegal recording seriously, with both criminal and civil consequences.

Criminal. Intentionally intercepting a conversation you have no right to record is a Class IV felony under Neb. Rev. Stat. 86-290(1). Under Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-105, that means up to 2 years in prison plus 12 months of post-release supervision, or a fine up to $10,000, or both. There is no mandatory minimum, and first-time, non-dangerous offenders are usually eligible for probation. Two narrow first-offense situations are only misdemeanors: intercepting unencrypted radio (a Class I misdemeanor) and intercepting a cell or paging signal with no commercial motive (a Class III misdemeanor).

Civil. A person who was illegally recorded can sue under Neb. Rev. Stat. 86-297 and recover the greater of (a) actual damages plus any profits the recorder made, or (b) statutory damages of $100 per day of violation or $10,000, whichever is larger. The statute also awards attorney fees and allows a court to order the recording stopped. Punitive damages are not available under Nebraska law, although the parallel federal claim under 18 U.S.C. 2520 does allow them, so a plaintiff with a federal hook can layer the two.

Conduct	Criminal penalty	Civil exposure
Illegally intercepting a conversation (86-290(1))	Class IV felony: 2 yrs, $10,000, 12 mo supervision	86-297: greater of $100/day or $10,000, plus attorney fees
First-offense unencrypted radio interception	Class I misdemeanor (up to 1 yr, $1,000)	Same 86-297 floor
First-offense cell/paging interception, no commercial gain	Class III misdemeanor (up to 3 mo, $500)	Same 86-297 floor
Recording someone's intimate area (28-311.08)	Class IV felony	Civil action for nonconsensual intimate images
Distributing an intimate recording (28-311.08)	Class IIA or Class II felony	Civil action for nonconsensual intimate images

Law library reading room with a brass lamp and bound volumes in soft focus

Recording the police in Nebraska

This is where Nebraska differs from most of the country. The federal 8th Circuit, which covers Nebraska, has not clearly established a First Amendment right to record police in public. In Molina v. City of St. Louis, 59 F.4th 334 (8th Cir. 2023), cert. denied (Feb. 20, 2024), the court held that the right to observe, and by extension record, police was not clearly established, which means officers usually keep qualified immunity against being sued. Robbins v. City of Des Moines, 984 F.3d 673 (8th Cir. 2021), agreed that recording is protected activity but not absolute. Nebraska also has no state law guaranteeing the right, unlike Colorado.

In practice, you can still record, but protect yourself: keep a reasonable distance, do not interfere, follow lawful orders, and remember that any audio you capture is covered by the one-party rule. The full breakdown is in the Nebraska guide to recording police.

Special topics: biometrics, AI, body cameras, and federal law

These are the fast-moving corners of Nebraska recording law. Each is summarized here, with the key citations.

Biometric privacy (LB204)

Nebraska does not have a BIPA-style biometric privacy law. LB204, the Biometric Autonomy Liberty Law modeled on Illinois's statute, was indefinitely postponed on April 17, 2026. Until that changes, voiceprint capture is governed by the wiretap rule at Neb. Rev. Stat. 86-290, and facial-recognition capture in private places runs through Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-311.08 and common-law intrusion upon seclusion. Anyone telling Nebraska residents they have Illinois-style biometric protections is mistaken.

AI and deepfake laws (LB371, LB383, LB525)

Nebraska did enact several AI measures. LB371 (signed May 30, 2025) extends the state's civil remedy for nonconsensual intimate images to AI-generated and digitally manipulated content. LB383 (signed May 20, 2025) renamed the child-pornography statute the Child Sexual Abuse Material Prevention Act and added AI-generated material. LB525 (signed April 14, 2026, operative July 1, 2027) is the Conversational AI Safety Act, which requires chatbots to disclose to minors that they are not human. The political-deepfake bill, LB615, was indefinitely postponed on April 17, 2026, so Nebraska has no political-deepfake disclosure statute.

Body-worn cameras and public records

Police body cameras are governed by Neb. Rev. Stat. 81-1454, which requires any agency that uses them to adopt a written policy, train officers, and keep recordings for at least 90 days (longer when tied to a case). The statute does not force agencies to deploy cameras, and it does not give the public an automatic right to the footage. Civilian requests go through the Nebraska Public Records Act (Neb. Rev. Stat. 84-712 to 84-712.09), where agencies may withhold active investigative records under 84-712.05(5). Denials can be appealed to the Attorney General or to district court.

Federal overlay

Federal law sits underneath Nebraska's rules. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (18 U.S.C. 2511) is a one-party floor with the same criminal-or-tortious-purpose carve-out, and its civil action at 18 U.S.C. 2520 allows punitive damages. The FCC's 2024 ruling (FCC 24-17) treats AI-cloned voices in robocalls as illegal artificial voices under the TCPA. The federal TAKE IT DOWN Act (Pub. L. 119-12, signed May 19, 2025) criminalizes nonconsensual intimate imagery, including deepfakes, and requires platforms to remove flagged content within 48 hours starting May 19, 2026. HIPAA limits how providers, not patients, handle recordings, so a patient may still record their own visit under the one-party rule.

Recent legal developments (2025 to 2026)

2025 LB80 consolidated Nebraska's voyeurism, intimate-image, and threat-to-distribute offenses into a single statute, Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-311.08, and repealed the old Section 28-311.09. Older guides citing 28-311.09 are out of date.
2025 LB371, LB383 added AI-generated content to the intimate-image and child-exploitation laws.
2026 LB525 created chatbot-disclosure duties (operative July 1, 2027).
2026 LB204 and LB615 (biometric privacy and political deepfakes) were both indefinitely postponed on April 17, 2026.

Nebraska recording laws in depth

Want to know more? Each guide below goes deeper than this overview on one specific situation.

By type of recording

By place or relationship

More Nebraska laws

This article is general legal information, not legal advice. Recording laws change and apply differently to each situation. For advice about your circumstances, consult a licensed Nebraska attorney.

More Nebraska Laws

Sources and References

Neb. Rev. Stat. 86-290 (interception; one-party consent at 86-290(2)(c); Class IV felony)(nebraskalegislature.gov).gov
Neb. Rev. Stat. 86-291 (court-ordered wiretap authorization; not the one-party rule)(nebraskalegislature.gov).gov
Neb. Rev. Stat. 86-297 (civil cause of action; $100/day or $10,000; no punitives)(nebraskalegislature.gov).gov
Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-311.08 (intrusion, voyeurism, intimate-image distribution; post-LB80 consolidation)(nebraskalegislature.gov).gov
Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-105 (Class IV felony sentencing)(nebraskalegislature.gov).gov
Neb. Rev. Stat. 81-1454 (body-worn camera policy and 90-day retention)(nebraskalegislature.gov).gov
Neb. Rev. Stat. 84-712.05 (public-records exemptions)(nebraskalegislature.gov).gov
Neb. Rev. Stat. 84-1412 (Open Meetings Act public recording right)(nebraskalegislature.gov).gov
2025 LB80 (consolidation of Section 28-311.08; repeal of 28-311.09 and 28-311.11)(nebraskalegislature.gov).gov
2025 LB371 (AI-image civil-liability extension; signed May 30, 2025)(nebraskalegislature.gov).gov
2025 LB383 (Child Sexual Abuse Material Prevention Act; signed May 20, 2025)(nebraskalegislature.gov).gov
2026 LB525 (Conversational AI Safety Act; operative July 1, 2027)(nebraskalegislature.gov).gov
LB204 Biometric Autonomy Liberty Law (indefinitely postponed April 17, 2026)(nebraskalegislature.gov).gov
Molina v. City of St. Louis, 59 F.4th 334 (8th Cir. 2023)(ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov).gov
Robbins v. City of Des Moines, 984 F.3d 673 (8th Cir. 2021)(ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov).gov
ECPA, 18 U.S.C. 2511 (federal one-party floor)(uscode.house.gov).gov
TAKE IT DOWN Act, S. 146 (Pub. L. 119-12)(congress.gov).gov
Stericycle, Inc., 372 NLRB No. 113 (Aug. 2, 2023)(nlrb.gov).gov