The U.S. will implement harsher restrictions on the legality of government surveillance following the passing of a new Senate bill, Digital Spy reports.

The newly-passed USA Freedom Act will essentially end large-scale National Security Agency surveillance of phone data of millions of people living in the country.

Key sections of the Patriot Act passed after the 9/11 terror attack will be extended, but the Act does ban the NSA from using mass data-gathering practices like those exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The NSA will now have to gain a federal court order to require phone companies to release potentially-sensitive data from individual suspects.

The House of Representatives passed the USA Freedom Act last month, and now it will go to US president Barack Obama following its Senate passing in a 67-32 vote.

Obama has indicated that he will sign the Freedom Act into law, in spite of protests from Republican opposition led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.