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.
On consumer data privacy, President Biden made an oblique reference to needing to “Pass bipartisan privacy legislation to protect our children online.” He may have been referring to minors data privacy legislation pending in the U.S. Senate, but the Insights Association continues to advocate for a comprehensive federal privacy law that would truly protect all American consumers, rather than the conflicting patchwork of state laws.
On AI, the President said his aim was to, “Harness the promise of AI and protect us from its peril. Ban AI voice impersonation and more!” As with his remarks on privacy, these goals are open to interpretation. The Administration has been busy implementing a wide variety of AI initiatives via executive order, but we are working to bring policymakers up to speed on AI, and its development and use in the insights industry, while trying to avoid an overly-aggressive regulatory posture at the state and federal level at a time when policymakers cannot even agree on a definition of AI.
On research subjects receiving incentives, President Biden said, “I want to protect other fundamental rights … Pass the PRO Act for workers' rights!” Of course, the PRO Act, which passed committee in the Senate, would potentially lead to the unionization of research subjects by making it difficult to treat them as independent contractors instead of employees when receiving any kind of incentive.
Other policy priorities for the insights industry went unaddressed, such as:
On these and other public policy issues, the Insights Association could not continue to advocate for the insights industry across the U.S. without the dedicated support of our members and sponsors, particularly our company and corporate department members.
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About the Author
Based in Washington, DC, Howard is the Insights Association's lobbyist for the marketing research and data analytics industry, focusing primarily on consumer privacy and data security, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), tort reform, and the funding and integrity of the decennial Census and the American Community Survey (ACS).
Howard has more than two decades of public policy experience. Before the Insights Association, he worked in Congress as senior legislative staffer for then-Representatives Christopher Cox (CA-48) and Cliff Stearns (FL-06). He also served more than four years with a science policy think tank, working to improve the understanding of scientific and social research and methodology among journalists and policymakers.
Howard is also co-director of The Census Project, a 900+ member coalition in support of a fair and accurate Census and ACS.
He has also served previously on the Board of Directors for the National Institute for Lobbying and Ethics and and the Association of Government Relations Professionals.
Howard has an MA International Relations from the University of Essex in England and a BA Honors Political Studies from Trent University in Canada, and has obtained the Certified Association Executive (CAE), Professional Lobbying Certificate (PLC) and the Public Policy Certificate (PPC).
When not running advocacy for the Insights Association, Howard enjoys hockey, NFL football, sci-fi and horror movies, playing with his dog, and spending time with family and friends.