Online privacy advocates and civil liberties groups lashed out Friday at a draft version of a Senate bill that would require companies to provide "technical assistance" when authorities seek encrypted information on locked phones.

A nine-page early copy version of the bill written by committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., and ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California states that companies that provide digital services – like Google and Apple – ensure their "products, services, applications or software" could be made accessible for law enforcement. Legislators are drafting the long-anticipated bill amid increasing clashes between law enforcement officials and Silicon Valley companies over access to encrypted devices, including the FBI's recent court order to unlock the iPhone of a terrorist.

Burr and Feinstein said in a joint statement that the bill, which was first reported on by The Hill on Thursday, has not been formally introduced and the language in the leaked draft is not final.

"The underlying goal is simple: when there's a court order to render technical assistance to law enforcement or provide decrypted information, that court order is carried out. No individual or company is above the law," the lawmakers said. "We're still in the process of soliciting input from stakeholders and hope to have final language ready soon."

The fate of the measure is uncertain. The White House has reportedly declined to offer public support for the draft legislation, according to Reuters. But critics were quick to denounce the early version of the legislation, warning it could result in a de facto ban on encryption software .

Kevin Bankston, director of the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation, opposed the proposed bill in a strongly worded statement.

"Not only does this bill undermine our security, it is also a massive Internet censorship bill, demanding that online platforms like Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store police their platforms to stop the distribution of secure apps," Bankston said. "I can say without exaggeration that this draft bill is the most ludicrous, dangerous, technically illiterate tech policy proposal of the 21st century so far."



Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that the draft's language requiring companies to allow access to encrypted data "ignores economic, security, and technical reality."

"It would force companies to deliberately weaken the security of their products by providing backdoors into the devices and services that everyone relies on," Guliani said.

Dean Garfield, the president of the Information Technology Industry Council trade association that includes Apple, Google and IBM, said in a statement that the draft legislation requires more work to address the nuances of encryption and the tech business.