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The insights industry faced more than just April showers, as the first full month of spring brought tempestuous issues, such as whether recent federal government action against DEI and sex/gender identity means we can no longer ask demographic questions, and determining the current impact of DOGE on the industry. We weighed in with Congress on consumer data privacy legislation, looked at a new privacy law change in Utah and the status of some AI legislation in California, urged more funding for ...

The first full month of spring brought with it a shiny new federal privacy bill, some developments on AI regulation, a tax win in Nebraska, a new federal ban on noncompetes, advances in preventing the government from competing with the insights industry, legislation moving in Minnesota on exit polling and political opinion research, complicated business payment disputes, and some new developments on competitive sourcing of insights services and the Census Household Panel.

While temperatures are starting to dip, concerns still simmered in September for the insights industry as we dealt with more new state privacy laws, burgeoning regulation of AI, and other pressing advocacy issues.

As America readies for the grand finale of another football season, we are just beginning our year-long campaign of advocacy across the country, focused so far on privacy legislation at the state and federal level, proposed taxes on insights companies, new HR laws, and potential restrictions on exit polling. Let's dive in...

The insights industry stands opposed to so-called "push polling," which is not polling at all – it is a form of political campaign messaging or negative phone banking fraudulently disguised as polling. While polling can be properly used to test messages, "push polling" is not a test, but rather an effort to communicate those messages by giving that communication the false appearance of polling.

New Hampshire law restricts political advocacy telephone calls, which it calls "push-polling." Thanks to a reform (S.B. 196) signed into law on April 23, 2014, the Granite State specifically excludes survey and opinion research.

Governor Maggie Hassan (D) made New Hampshire safe for polling yesterday by signing a bill into law that eliminates her state’s restrictions on legitimate research.

MRA's cooperative lobbying efforts with the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) bore fruit this year in Alabama and Alaska.

The Alabama Senate passed S.B. 96, which would amend Section 17-5-16 of the Alabama Code to require “any communication via phone bank or other automated telephone dialing service to be conducted” with a “notice at the beginning and ending of the phone call that the communication was a paid political advertisement, clearly identifying the identification of the person, nonprofit corporation, entity, principal campaign committee, or political action committee that paid f...

Alaska Senate Majority Leader Kevin Meyer (R-O) introduced S.B. 40, and Rep. Scott Kawasaki (D-9) introduced H.B. 226, legislation which would forbid using “an automated telephone system, device, or facsimile machine for the selection and dialing of telephone numbers and playing of recorded messages if a message is completed to the dialed number for the purpose of: (A) offering goods or services for sale; (B) conveying information on goods or services in soliciting sales or purchases; (C) ...