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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.

Temperatures may be cooling as the calendar turns to autumn, but legislative issues are heating up as lawmakers get back to work following summer breaks. Here are some of the key issues we're engaged with at the national and state level on your behalf...

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.

In response to a recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) workshop, the Insights Association (IA) urged the agency to curtail “the use of noncompete agreements in employment contracts for all but the most senior employees, unless the employees receive compensation or severance commensurate with the time frame the employees are restricted,” but to also avoid impeding “the use of nondisclosure agreements or non-solicitation agreements.”

The Insights Association today called upon its members and all organizations operating in the market research and data analytics space during this time of economic tumult to forgo enforcement of noncompete agreements for staff involuntarily separated from their organizations without full compensation.

How should the U.S. insights industry approach the “iron triangle” of employment agreements – Non-Competes, Non-Disclosures and Non-Solicits – especially during the COVID-19 crisis?