The Burr‐Feinstein bill was recently described as harmful, unenforceable and unconstitutional by a prominent legal expert. The proposal was also called as ultimately unworkable even though it was well intentioned by Apple. This was the description that was provided in the recent open letter which was sent out by the Reform Government Surveillance coalition where one of the key members is Apple. Apart from the company, the list of members also includes Twitter, Microsoft, Facebook, Dropbox and Google. While addressing to the both the Senators who were behind the bill that was proposed, explanations were provided as to how the bill would be harmful for when talking about the interest towards the American businesses and US People.

As per the letter that was sent out, it has clearly been mentioned that the creation of the back doors could go ahead and create various kinds of exploitation opportunities by bad actors as well as push the users to companies that were not from a US background. This would also result in the undermining of the competition worldwide in regards to the technology industry that is present in the United States. The signatures also included coalitions of three other industries.

The compliance with Court Orders Act of 2016, which was the former name of the Burr‐  Feinstein Bill, was published last week while the discussions were going on when it was published in the form of a draft. Before it can go and touch the Senate’s floor, there are still many stages that it has to pass through. Considering that the elections are going to happen really soon, this is something that may just not happen.

There are five goals that the coalition of the Reform Government Surveillance has; this includes limiting the government’s authority towards the collection of user data, ensuring that the demands made by the government are transparent in regards to accessing the same, ensuring that there is a legal framework which is clear along with the right kind of balances and checks.