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The Senate Appropriations Committee will require a detailed report from the U.S. Census Bureau about the Ask U.S. Panel, which the Insights Association has warned "could waste millions of taxpayer dollars in a vain attempt to compete with existing online research panel providers, instead of simply purchasing those services on the open market for a fraction of the cost.”

To our pleasant surprise, Congress has actually been cutting compromises on federal privacy legislation, as the Insights Association has been seeking, so that has been a big focus this month, along with other privacy and data security concerns. Also on this month’s docket have been rules to treat a research subject as an independent contractor, the use of employee non-compete agreements, funding for the U.S. Census, and the regulation of alcohol market research.

As the Congressional appropriations process slowly moves forward for Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23), the Insights Association is supporting a significant increase in funding for the decennial census and the American Community Survey (ACS). Quality data from these constitutionally-mandated programs are essential to the function of the insights industry.

The leading nonprofit trade association for the insights industry delivered testimony today at the House Appropriations Committee about the U.S. Census Bureau’s “Ask U.S. Panel” project and the legislative solutions the association has sought to bring transparency to the wasteful project.

The Insights Association (IA) continues to raise concerns about the Census Bureau's Ask U.S. Panel project, which would subsidize a private entity to develop a probability-based online research panel instead of purchasing the service from existing providers that already offer the service on the open market.

Since our last Fighting for You, the Insights Association has been charging full-steam into debates over consumer privacy and data security at the state, federal and trans-national levels; opposing a new project at the Census Bureau that would compete directly against the insights industry; scrutinizing Congressional legislation and possible Securities and Exchange Commission regulation that could treat research subjects like employees, instead of independent contractors; and advocating against ...

In a March 25, 2022 joint statement, the United States and the European Commission claimed that the two sides had "agreed in principle on a new Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework" to replace the U.S.-EU Privacy Shield, which was struck down by the European Court of Justice in the Schrems II case in July 2020.

President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address briefly touched upon consumer data privacy issues and even brief mentions of a given policy concern raise interest in DC.

Research Business Daily Report (RBDR) explored the growing controversy over the Census Bureau’s attempt to launch their own probability-based online panel to compete with the insights industry, and spoke with the Insights Association to learn more.

The Insights Association contended that a Census Bureau plan "to develop a probability-based research panel would be duplicative, at best; numerous private sector insights companies and organizations already provide well-established high-quality probability-based panels. The Bureau’s plan is also anti-competitive, given these existing panels and the Bureau’s intent to fund an additional insights firm to build one."