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Not every October surprise has to be frightening. This month, the Insights Association helped deliver several significant wins for the insights industry in California, while keeping watch over a new crop of privacy, AI, accessibility and Census challenges across the country. IA also rolled out an updated Code of Standards and Ethics and continued to promote and protect the integrity of the market research, insights and data analytics profession.

The framework was developed to help organizations address the risks associated with AI while promoting its responsible development and use.

The governor vetoed California A.B. 1542, a bill opposed by the Insights Association that would have prohibited most companies from selling sensitive personal information to a third party. States are cracking down on data sharing, but the governor worried about “unintended consequences if consumers are removed entirely from the decision process."

Insights Association advocacy helped protect the conduct of market research, insights and analytics in three California privacy and AI bills, curtailing the impact on relations with research subjects before the bills became law.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) signed an Insights Association-endorsed bill into law on September 30, 2026, finally cracking down on abusive litigation that has plagued some insights firms.

As summer gives way to fall, U.S. policymakers are giving the insights industry plenty to keep an eye on. This month, the Insights Association backed a new California law clarifying the legality of alcohol taste-testing research, pushed back against proposed changes to the 2030 Census and delays in critical census data, supported legislation to curb abusive privacy lawsuits, and tracked a fresh wave of state privacy and artificial intelligence proposals affecting insights businesses across the c...

The dog days of summer brought no slowdown in legislative and regulatory activity affecting the insights industry. In August, the Insights Association confronted fraudulent polling masquerading as research, opposed a reported proposal to eliminate race and ethnicity data from the 2030 Census, pushed for funding flexibility for the Census Bureau, and examined state and federal requirements involving consumer privacy, children’s and seniors’ data, and conversational artificial intelligence.

July may be peak vacation season, but policymakers gave the insights industry little opportunity to relax. The Insights Association tracked and engaged on consequential developments involving privacy and data security, artificial intelligence and HR law, from the defeat of problematic California data-localization legislation to a damaging new data law in New Jersey, federal restrictions affecting children’s data, emerging chatbot requirements and new rules governing non-compete agreements.

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding the independence of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has driven concerns that one of the primary mechanisms for trans-Atlantic data sharing, the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (DPG), is in jeopardy.

Summer is here, but the insights industry can’t afford a vacation from legislative and regulatory advocacy for our interests. In June, the Insights Association secured significant victories on AI policy, helping defeat legislation in California and Minnesota that would have imposed substantial new restrictions on the use of research data, synthetic data, and AI-enabled insights tools, while engaging with other AI and privacy issues in California, Massachusetts and Congress.