Committee advances bill to restrict 'reverse keyword' warrants, adopts compromise limits

The Delaware House Judiciary Committee on May 6 released House Substitute 1 for HB 145, a bill that would restrict the use of "reverse keyword" warrants — orders that require companies to return accounts or user identifiers tied to a particular search term or address over a time period.

Representative Wilson Anton, the bill sponsor, told the committee that reverse keyword warrants sweep an "unspecified and unlimited number of people" into investigations and risk chilling online speech. She offered examples of how the tool could capture casual searches — from a student researching cyanide to people searching an address for legitimate reasons — and said the substitute narrows the tool by creating exemptions and limiting returns in many cases.

Sponsor remarks emphasized a compromise: the substitute exempts certain serious offenses but otherwise limits the number of results a company may return in response to such a demand; the sponsor said the compromise settled on a five-hit limit to force narrower requests from investigators. "If you limit it to 5, it forces whatever law enforcement agency that's looking for this information to be more specific," she told the committee.

Civil-liberties advocates and tech-policy groups expressed strong support. John Reynolds of the ACLU of Delaware said the ACLU "strongly supports" the bill and encouraged either a full ban or strong harm-reduction measures; he cited a press report that reverse warrants are a rapidly increasing tool nationwide and said Delaware's incorporation status gives the General Assembly a unique chance to set a privacy-protective precedent.

Law-enforcement witnesses urged caution. Morgan Maly, executive director of the Delaware Association of Chiefs of Police, said the substitute "goes too far" and described existing checks — departmental review, DOJ approval and judicial oversight — for extraordinary warrants. Sergeant Mike Riffle of the Delaware State Police acknowledged the state has not seen pervasive use of reverse-keyword warrants but cautioned that in very limited, last-resort cases (for example, rare abduction investigations cited in other states) the tool has been helpful.

Christy Iannelli, a policy adviser at the Delaware Department of Justice, told the committee she was not aware of any reverse keyword warrants filed or domesticated in Delaware and explained that in child-exploitation (CSAM) investigations the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children typically provides content-based tips that are tied to an IP address rather than broad reverse-keyword dragnets.

After public and expert testimony and members' questions about exemptions, suppression of unlawfully obtained evidence, and federal-state interactions, the committee voted to release the substitute to be announced on the House floor. Recorded yes votes included Representatives Bush, Forman, Winn, Phillips, Vice Chair Cindy Romer and Chair Griffin; Representative Cook voted no and several members were absent.

Sponsor and witnesses signaled continued willingness to refine exemptions and targeting language as the bill proceeds through the legislative process.