Known for his libertarian-leaning stances within the Democratic Party, Wyden has been a prominent advocate for privacy rights, internet freedom, and limiting government surveillance, positioning him as a defender of civil liberties.

[15] In September, Wyden joined Wendell H. Ford in requesting that the FAA publicize information on the federal government's reason for not making safety data on the airlines more readily available to travelers.

[21] In April 2001, Wyden joined Gordon H. Smith in introducing a proposal for a change in a budget resolution, saying Congress not responding at a time of layoffs was "nothing short of government malpractice."

During an address to the International Aviation Club days later, Wyden warned that airlines that persisted in fighting modest steps like informing the public of perpetually late flights would encounter more burdensome requirements later.

[23] In January 2002, Wyden charged Enron with resorting "to a variety of legal, regulatory and accounting contortions to keep investors and the public in the dark" and called for Congress to begin an investigation into the matter.

[25] In March 2002, amid the Senate's inability to reach an agreement on legislation intended to overhaul American election procedures, Wyden said the bill was "not a corpse" and must not disrupt Oregon's and Washington's vote-by-mail systems.

"[33] On March 6, 2013, Wyden crossed party lines to join Republican Senator Rand Paul, who was engaged in a talking filibuster to block voting on the nomination of John O. Brennan as the Director of the CIA.

Wyden asserted that Americans expect candidates to release their tax returns and Trump's break from tradition was "an exceptional moment where a long-standing precedent has been broken, and it presents enormous peril to the public to have this information as private.

[42] In August 2017, Wyden was one of four senators to unveil the Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2017, legislation intended to establish "thorough, yet flexible, guidelines for Federal Government procurements of connected devices.

"[47] On August 1, 2018, Wyden announced his intent to put a formal hold on Treasury deputy secretary nominee Justin Muzinich after his confirmation by the Senate Finance Committee.

[50] On July 9, 2024, it was reported that Wyden and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse sent an official letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland the previous week requesting that he appoint a special counsel to investigate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for tax and ethics violations.

The letter says, "The breadth of the omissions uncovered to date, and the serious possibility of additional tax fraud and false statement violations by Justice Thomas and his associates, warrant the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate this misconduct.

[64] In July, Wyden confirmed he had joined other senators in introducing legislation intended to ensure gun dealers were not engaging in illegal sales and bestowing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives with clear enforcement mechanisms.

"[69] In October 2018, Wyden was one of 20 senators to sign a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging him to reverse the rollback of a policy that granted visas to same-sex partners of LGBTQIA+ diplomats who had unions not recognized by their home countries, writing that too many places around the world have seen LGBTQIA+ individuals "subjected to discrimination and unspeakable violence, and receive little or no protection from the law or local authorities" and that the US refusing to let LGBTQIA+ diplomats bring their partners to the US would be equivalent of America upholding "the discriminatory policies of many countries around the world.

[71] In September 2017, Wyden was one of nine senators to sign a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai that charged the FCC with failing "to provide stakeholders with an opportunity to comment on the tens of thousands of filed complaints that directly shed light on proposed changes to existing net neutrality protections.

[79] Per a 2013 Washington Post article, Wyden's concerns "stemmed from top-secret information he had learned as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee", a position he'd held for a dozen years by 2013, but he was "bound by secrecy rules.

"[80][81] On March 12, 2013, during a United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing, Wyden quoted NSA director Keith B. Alexander's keynote speech at the 2012 DEF CON.

"[82] When Edward Snowden was asked during a 2014 television interview what the decisive moment was or what caused him to whistle-blow, he replied: "Sort of the breaking point was seeing the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, directly lie under oath to Congress.

[93] In 2011, Wyden supported the no-fly zone and military intervention in Libya in order to protect civilians, saying, "The violence of Colonel [Muammar] Gaddafi against his own people is a humanitarian crisis.

[98] In December 2018, after United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the Trump administration was suspending its obligations in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 60 days in the event that Russia continued to violate the treaty, Wyden was one of 26 senators to sign a letter expressing concern that the administration was "abandoning generations of bipartisan U.S. leadership around the paired goals of reducing the global role and number of nuclear weapons and ensuring strategic stability with America's nuclear-armed adversaries" and calling on Trump to continue arms negotiations.

[99] In March 2018, Wyden voted against tabling a resolution spearheaded by Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, and Mike Lee that would have required Trump to withdraw American troops either in or influencing Yemen within the next 30 days unless they were combating Al-Qaeda.

[106] In June 2017, Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, Mike Lee, and Tim Scott introduced legislation allowing graduate students to allocate money from stipends and fellowships into tax-deferred individual retirement accounts (IRAs).

[110] In 2003, Wyden joined Senators Lindsey Graham and Trent Lott to help pass the Bush administration's Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act.

[115][116] In late 2011 and early 2012, Wyden attracted attention for working with GOP House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan to develop a Medicare reform plan that would result in semi-privatization of the system, provoking a negative response from his Democratic allies, including Obama.

"[122] In January 2019, Wyden was one of 20 senators to sponsor the Dreamer Confidentiality Act, a bill that would ban the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from passing information collected on DACA recipients to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Department of Justice, or any other law enforcement agency with exceptions in the case of fraudulent claims, national security issues, or non-immigration related felonies being investigated.

[140] In 2024, Wyden co-sponsored the Stop Predatory Investing Act to ban corporate investors that buy up more than 50 single-family homes from deducting interest or depreciation from their taxes on those properties.

[147] Ezra Klein wrote: "Perhaps no single member of Congress deserves as much credit for slowing the advance" of the bills than Wyden, who for much of 2010 "fought a one-man battle to keep the Senate version of the legislation from moving through on a unanimous vote.

Wyden said in a statement that computers were "increasingly involved in the most important decisions affecting Americans’ lives" and that too frequently "algorithms depend on biased assumptions or data that can actually reinforce discrimination against women and people of color.

"[151] In October 2019, Wyden proposed The Mind Your Own Business Act to allow the FTC to issue penalties for first-time privacy violators of up to 4% of annual revenue, like the European regulation GDPR.

Wyden added, "While I continue to have concerns about ensuring that taxpayers are protected if this loan is to occur, I believe that if the President can unwisely provide $750 billion of taxpayer money for the investment banks who took horribly unacceptable risks and helped trigger an economic collapse, we certainly have a duty to attempt to preserve a cornerstone domestic industry and the jobs of hundreds of thousands of working people whose personal actions are in no way responsible for the current economic crisis.