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The heat was rising on legislative, regulatory and compliance issues for the insights industry in June, as the Insights Association focused on: federal privacy legislation; pending compliance hurdles as new state and federal laws took effect; a new AI law in Colorado; and a federal bill that would require tax withholding for research subjects receiving participant incentives.

With summer almost upon us, the Insights Association focused this month on a new U.S. law prohibiting many data transfers to China and vaguely-Chinese-owned companies, federal minors’ privacy bills, more AI legislation, and how insights employers can comply with the new FTC rule banning non-compete agreements in employment contracts, among other policy issues.

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.

The insights industry’s public policy concerns entered March roaring like a lion, but they are not exactly leaving it like a lamb. President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address to Congress touched on a few of them, including privacy, artificial intelligence (AI) and research subjects who receive incentives. Further this month, IA is engaging with legislation and regulation on data privacy, including potential harsh restrictions on data sharing with Chinese-controlled companies and restricti...

A new institute focused on safety in artificial intelligence (AI) is being stood up at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), under the U.S. Department of Commerce.

President Joe Biden’s recent State of the Union Address to Congress touched on a few policy areas of concern to the insights industry, including privacy, artificial intelligence (AI) and research subjects who receive incentives.

This month, the Insights Association focused on extensive artificial intelligence legislation at the state level, urgent developments in privacy compliance in California and Washington state, new bills on census issues (including one that would kill the ACS), the insights compliance concerns with sales taxes on SaaS and PaaS, and a couple of new telephone-related bills.

Kicking off another year of advocacy for the insights industry, the Insights Association focused in January on proposed children’s privacy rules, a new tax bill in Nebraska, turning 529 accounts into career savings plans, a proposed tax on displacing employees with any kind of technology, and the Biden Administration’s extensive new artificial intelligence policies… and lots more!

As the insights industry closes out 2023 on the calendar, the Insights Association looked back at our advocacy wins and losses on various consumer data privacy issues, and taxes, while checking in on legislation, regulation, and laws at the state and federal level on privacy, taxes, the independent contractor status of research subjects, and artificial intelligence.

During recent conversations with leaders at market research agencies and corporate insights departments, current and future use of AI in our work and is a persistent topic. Some leaders in the space fully believe that AI, and generative tools, will be as important an evolution as the migration to online. More powerful Generative AI applications can bring welcomed time, cost, and quality efficiencies, but can also enable more sophisticated and harder-to-detect fraud.