Dear Members of Congress,

As your constituent, I’m writing today to urge you to reject the Burr-Feinstein draft legislation on encryption. The draft bill would undermine the security at the heart of modern technology, with major ramifications for privacy and trust in American companies.

The proposal would place new obligations on American tech companies to decrypt encrypted data or offer “such technical assistance as is necessary” if ordered to do so by any court anywhere in the country. Instead of working to secure our data as best as possible, the bill would force tech companies to actively come up with ways to undermine or thwart their own security, or build flawed security systems from the outset.

This bill is exactly the opposite of what we need to safeguard our data and communications from identity thieves, malicious hackers, and other criminals. Rather than forcing companies to undermine security, we should be encouraging them to make their systems strong against potential attackers.

Our lives are increasingly lived online, and we’ve begun to rely on modern tech companies to secure some of our most precious and intimate pieces of data, from medical records to photos of our children. This proposal would threaten the move to digital storage, calling into question whether American companies can be trusted with our data. Law-abiding citizens who fear security breaches could well prefer to give their data to non-U.S. companies, a terrible outcome for our country.

Please oppose and decline to co-sponsor the Burr-Feinstein proposal.