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

Except as otherwise specifically provided in this chapter any person who— intentionally intercepts, endeavors to intercept, or procures any other person to intercept or endeavor to intercept, any wire, oral, or electronic communication; intentionally uses, endeavors to use, or procures any other person to use or endeavor to use any electronic, mechanical, or other device to intercept any oral communication when— such device is affixed to, or otherwise transmits a signal through, a wire, cable, or other like connection used in wire communication; or such device transmits communications by radio, or interferes with the transmission of such communication; or such person knows, or has reason to know, that such device or any component thereof has been sent through the mail or transported in interstate or foreign commerce; or such use or endeavor to use (A) takes place on the premises of any business or other commercial establishment the operations of which affect interstate or foreign commerce; or (B) obtains or is for the purpose of obtaining information relating to the operations of any business or other commercial establishment the operations of which affect interstate or foreign…

Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-08-12 · Read the full section at uscode.house.gov

Also relied on in: US Recording Laws by State (2026): All 50 States Explained, Alabama Audio Recording Laws: Consent Rules and Penalties, Alabama Dashcam Laws: Legality, Mounting Rules, and Evidence Use

Except as provided in section 2511(2)(a)(ii), any person whose wire, oral, or electronic communication is intercepted, disclosed, or intentionally used in violation of this chapter may in a civil action recover from the person or entity, other than the United States, which engaged in that violation such relief as may be appropriate. In an action under this section, appropriate relief includes— such preliminary and other equitable or declaratory relief as may be appropriate; damages under subsection (c) and punitive damages in appropriate cases; and a reasonable attorney’s fee and other litigation costs reasonably incurred.

Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-28 · Read the full section at uscode.house.gov

Also relied on in: One-Party Consent States: Complete 2026 Guide, Alabama Phone Call Recording Laws: What You Need to Know, Alaska Phone Call Recording Laws: Rules for Landline, Cell, and VoIP (2026)

It shall be unlawful— for any person— except a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, or licensed dealer, to engage in the business of importing, manufacturing, or dealing in firearms, or in the course of such business to ship, transport, or receive any firearm in interstate or foreign commerce; or except a licensed importer or licensed manufacturer, to engage in the business of importing or manufacturing ammunition, or in the course of such business, to ship, transport, or receive any ammunition in interstate or foreign commerce; for any importer, manufacturer, dealer, or collector licensed under the provisions of this chapter to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce any firearm to any person other than a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector, except that— this paragraph and subsection (b)(3) shall not be held to preclude a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector from returning a firearm or replacement firearm of the same kind and type to a person from whom it was received; and this paragraph shall not be held to preclude an individual from mailing a firearm owned in compliance…

Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-28 · Read the full section at uscode.house.gov

Also relied on in: Can You Become an ICE Agent with a Criminal Record? (2026 Guide), How Long Does a Felony Stay on Your Record? (2026), Supreme Court Limits the Federal Gun Ban on Marijuana Users (Hemani, 2026)

(1) If a law enforcement agency uses a body camera on a law enforcement officer, the law enforcement agency shall do all of the following: (a) Administer a written policy regarding all of the following: 1. The use, maintenance, and storage of body cameras and data recorded by the body cameras. 2. Any limitations the law enforcement agency imposes on which law enforcement officers may wear a body camera. 3. Any limitations the law enforcement agency imposes on situations, persons, or encounters that may be recorded by a body camera. (b) Train all law enforcement officers wearing a body camera on the policy under par. (a) and on the requirements under sub. (2). (c) Train all employees that use, maintain, store, or release data from a body camera on the policy under par. (a) and on the requirements under subs. (2) and (3). (d) Periodically review practices regarding the body cameras and data from body cameras to ensure compliance with the policy under par. (a) and the requirements under subs. (2) and (3). (e) If the law enforcement agency maintains an Internet site or has an Internet site maintained on its behalf, make the policy under par.

Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-29 · Read the full section at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov

Also relied on in: Wisconsin Laws on Recording Police: Your Rights and Limitations (2026), Wisconsin Laws on Recording in Public: Filming, Photography, and Privacy (2026), Wisconsin Video Recording Laws: Surveillance, Filming, and Privacy Rules (2026)

(1) Right to inspection. (a) Except as otherwise provided by law, any requester has a right to inspect any record. Substantive common law principles construing the right to inspect, copy or receive copies of records shall remain in effect. The exemptions to the requirement of a governmental body to meet in open session under s. 19.85 are indicative of public policy, but may be used as grounds for denying public access to a record only if the authority or legal custodian under s. 19.33 makes a specific demonstration that there is a need to restrict public access at the time that the request to inspect or copy the record is made. (am) In addition to any right under par. (a), any requester who is an individual or person authorized by the individual has a right to inspect any personally identifiable information pertaining to the individual in a record containing personally identifiable information that is maintained by an authority and to make or receive a copy of any such information. The right to inspect or copy information in a record under this paragraph does not apply to any of the following: 1.

Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-29 · Read the full section at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov

(1) Evidence obtained as the result of the use of voice recording equipment for recording of telephone conversations, by way of interception of a communication or in any other manner, shall be totally inadmissible in the courts of this state in civil actions, except as provided in ss. 968.28 to 968.37. (2) Subsection (1) shall not apply where: (a) Such recording is made in a manner other than by interception and the person whose conversation is being recorded is informed at that time that the conversation is being recorded and that any evidence thereby obtained may be used in a court of law; or such recording is made through a recorder connector provided by the telecommunications utility as defined in s. 196.01 (10) or a telecommunications carrier as defined in s. 196.01 (8m) in accordance with its tariffs and which automatically produces a distinctive recorder tone that is repeated at intervals of approximately 15 seconds; (b) The recording is made by a telecommunications utility as defined in s. 196.01 (10), a telecommunications carrier as defined in s.

Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-29 · Read the full section at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov

(1) Felonies in the statutes are classified as follows: (a) Class A felony. (b) Class B felony. (c) Class C felony. (d) Class D felony. (e) Class E felony. (f) Class F felony. (g) Class G felony. (h) Class H felony. (i) Class I felony. (2) A felony is a Class A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, or I felony when it is so specified in the statutes. (3) Penalties for felonies are as follows: (a) For a Class A felony, life imprisonment. (b) For a Class B felony, imprisonment not to exceed 60 years. (c) For a Class C felony, a fine not to exceed $100,000 or imprisonment not to exceed 40 years, or both. (d) For a Class D felony, a fine not to exceed $100,000 or imprisonment not to exceed 25 years, or both. (e) For a Class E felony, a fine not to exceed $50,000 or imprisonment not to exceed 15 years, or both. (f) For a Class F felony, a fine not to exceed $25,000 or imprisonment not to exceed 12 years and 6 months, or both. (g) For a Class G felony, a fine not to exceed $25,000 or imprisonment not to exceed 10 years, or both. (h) For a Class H felony, a fine not to exceed $10,000 or imprisonment not to exceed 6 years, or both.

Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-29 · Read the full section at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov

Also relied on in: Wisconsin Audio Recording Laws: One-Party Consent Rules and Penalties (2026), Wisconsin Voyeurism and Hidden Camera Laws: Privacy Crimes and Penalties (2026), How Many Years for Second Degree Murder? Sentences by State (2026)

(1) In this section: (a) “Nude or partially nude person” means any human being who has less than fully and opaquely covered genitals, pubic area or buttocks, any female human being who has less than a fully opaque covering over any portion of a breast below the top of the nipple, or any male human being with covered genitals in a discernibly turgid state. (b) “Private place” means a place where a person may reasonably expect to be safe from being observed without his or her knowledge and consent. (c) “Surveillance device” means any device, instrument, apparatus, implement, mechanism or contrivance used, designed to be used to observe, or capable of observing, the activities of a person. “Surveillance device” includes a peephole. (2) Except as provided in sub. (4), whoever does any of the following is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor: (a) Knowingly installs a surveillance device in any private place, or uses a surveillance device to observe in a private place, with the intent to observe any nude or partially nude person without the consent of the person observed.

Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-29 · Read the full section at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov

Also relied on in: Wisconsin Landlord-Tenant Recording Laws: Cameras, Surveillance, and Privacy (2026), Wisconsin Medical Recording Laws: Patient Rights, HIPAA, and Consent (2026), Wisconsin Security Camera Laws: Home, Business, and HOA Rules (2026)

(1) In this section: (a) “Captures a representation” means takes a photograph, makes a motion picture, videotape, recording, or other visual or audio representation, or records or stores in any medium data that represents a visual image. (ae) “Consent” means words or overt actions by a person who is competent to give informed consent indicating a freely given agreement to the act. A person who has not attained the age of 18 is incapable of consent. The following persons are presumed incapable of consent but the presumption may be rebutted by competent evidence, subject to the provisions of s. 972.11 (2): 1. A person suffering from a mental illness or defect that impairs capacity to appraise personal conduct. 2. A person who is unconscious or for any other reason is physically unable to communicate unwillingness to an act. (ag) “Intimate representation” means any of the following: 1. A representation of a nude or partially nude person. 2. A representation of clothed, covered, or partially clothed or covered genitalia or buttock that is not otherwise visible to the public. 3. A representation of a person urinating, defecating, or using a feminine hygiene product. 4.

Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-29 · Read the full section at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov

Also relied on in: Wisconsin Smart Glasses Recording Laws, Wisconsin Surveillance Camera Laws (2026 Guide), Wisconsin Data Privacy Laws: Breach Notification & Consumer Rights (2026)

Whoever uses a drone, as defined in s. 175.55 (1) (a), with the intent to photograph, record, or otherwise observe another individual in a place or location where the individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy is guilty of Class A misdemeanor. This section does not apply to a law enforcement officer authorized to use a drone pursuant to s. 175.55 (2).

Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-29 · Read the full section at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov

Also relied on in: Is It Illegal to Video Record Someone Without Their Consent? (2026)

In ss. 968.28 to 968.375: (1) “Aggrieved person” means a person who was a party to any intercepted wire, electronic or oral communication or a person against whom the interception was directed. (2) “Aural transfer” means a transfer containing the human voice at any point from the point of origin to the point of reception. (3) “Contents,” when used with respect to any wire, electronic, or oral communication, includes any information concerning the substance, purport, or meaning of that communication. (4) “Electronic communication” means any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data or intelligence of any nature wholly or partially transmitted by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic or photooptical system. “Electronic communication” does not include any of the following: (a) The radio portion of a cordless telephone communication that is transmitted between the cordless telephone handset and the base unit. (b) Any wire or oral communication. (c) Any communication made through a tone-only paging device. (d) Any communication from a tracking device.

Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-29 · Read the full section at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov

Also relied on in: Wisconsin Phone Call Recording Laws: Consent Rules for All Call Types (2026), Wisconsin Ring Doorbell Laws: What You Need to Know in 2026

(1) Each application for an order authorizing or approving the interception of a wire, electronic or oral communication shall be made in writing upon oath or affirmation to the court and shall state the applicant’s authority to make the application and may be upon personal knowledge or information and belief. Each application shall include the following information: (a) The identity of the investigative or law enforcement officer making the application, and the officers authorizing the application. (b) A full and complete statement of the facts and circumstances relied upon by the applicant, to justify the applicant’s belief that an order should be issued, including: 1. Details of the particular offense that has been, is being, or is about to be committed; 2. A particular description of the nature and location of the facilities from which or the place where the communication is to be intercepted; 3. A particular description of the type of communications sought to be intercepted; and 4. The identity of the person, if known, committing the offense and whose communications are to be intercepted.

Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-29 · Read the full section at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov

Also relied on in: Wisconsin AI Meeting Recording Laws (2026)

(1) Except as otherwise specifically provided in ss. 196.63 or 968.28 to 968.30, whoever commits any of the acts enumerated in this section is guilty of a Class H felony: (a) Intentionally intercepts, attempts to intercept or procures any other person to intercept or attempt to intercept, any wire, electronic or oral communication. (b) Intentionally uses, attempts to use or procures any other person to use or attempt to use any electronic, mechanical or other device to intercept any oral communication. (c) Discloses, or attempts to disclose, to any other person the contents of any wire, electronic or oral communication, knowing or having reason to know that the information was obtained through the interception of a wire, electronic or oral communication in violation of this section or under circumstances constituting violation of this section. (d) Uses, or attempts to use, the contents of any wire, electronic or oral communication, knowing or having reason to know that the information was obtained through the interception of a wire, electronic or oral communication in violation of this section or under circumstances constituting violation of this section.

Official text (excerpt) · as of 2026-07-29 · Read the full section at docs.legis.wisconsin.gov

Also relied on in: Wisconsin Dashcam Laws: Mounting Rules, Audio Recording, and Evidence (2026), Wisconsin School Recording Laws: Student, Parent, and Teacher Rights (2026), Wisconsin Workplace Recording Laws: Employee and Employer Rights (2026)