Despite the unlikelihood of the passage of the bipartisan American Data Privacy and Protection Act this year amid the nearing mid-term polls, experts noted the bill's significance in advancing discussions on privacy, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. "We are long overdue for a strong federal privacy standard and we have never been this close to making that a reality, said Electronic Privacy Information Center Executive Director Alan Butler, who noted that the legislation's inclusion of a prohibition on advertising to minors, as well as reductions in collected data, establishes a "very robust standard." However, the bill has been criticized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for barring states to innovate in privacy legislation, as well as allowing the Federal Trade Commission to handle telecom providers' privacy and data practices. "Congress must not remove telecommunications companies from the scrutiny of expert federal regulators with a deep understanding of the industry," wrote the EFF.