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The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently sent a reminder that “hashing” personal data is not as protective as companies may think.

The U.S. Senate just approved legislation, supported by the leading nonprofit association for the insights industry, that would regulate the design and operations of many for-profit online social platforms if they knowingly interact with minors 16 years of age or younger.

Despite all the political turmoil in the U.S., the Insights Association remained focused on advocacy on our bread-and-butter policy issues in July, including heated fights over census funding, delays in federal noncompete rules, proposed portable benefits for independent contractors (that could include research subjects), more AI legislation, and a win on some IA-supported legislation in Congress.

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.

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 Association (IA), the leading nonprofit trade association for the market research and analytics industry, had a mixed reaction to new draft comprehensive privacy legislation proposed in the U.S. House and Senate.

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...

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.

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.

As phishing emails circulated across the insights industry this week, the Insights Association reminds everyone to stay vigilant with every communication they receive and avoid falling prey to scams.