The Insights Association and AAPOR File FCC Petition Seeking Legal Differentiation for Marketing and Research Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 10/30/2017 3:04:00 PM Seeking to clarify the regulatory distinction between the intent to market and sell to individuals and the dissimilar intent to understand market needs, the Insights Association and AAPOR have filed a petition with the FCC to secure "greater clarity" that will be "critical to restoring a measure of sanity to TCPA litigation." Read More
Testimony at New Jersey Regulatory Hearing in Defense of Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 10/20/2017 12:54:00 PM A leading research association testified at a hearing in New Jersey on October 19, 2017 about proposed regulations on payments to medical professionals, urging an exemption for pharmaceutical marketing research incentive payments. Read More
Number Portability Database is for Researchers, Not Just Telemarketers Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 10/4/2017 4:55:00 PM Are all people who need to access the national number portability database "telemarketers?" Read More
FCC Should White List Research Callers - Insights Association response to robocall proposals Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 8/1/2017 5:12:00 PM The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should require voice service providers and call blocking service providers to check a white list of legitimate dialers before blocking a telephone number, according to comments from a leading research association. Read More
New NTIA Facial Recognition Best Practices Advance Research and Consumer Privacy Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 6/30/2016 9:35:00 AM A new set of industry best practices for protecting consumer privacy in facial recognition technology, resulting from a multistakeholder process overseen by a federal government agency, will advance privacy safeguards while also carving out most research and analytics uses of the technology. Read More
CASRO and MRA Join Suit Against the FCC’s New TCPA Rules Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 8/13/2015 2:59:00 PM America’s two national associations representing the profession and industry of survey, opinion and marketing research have filed a “motion to intervene” in a court case against new telephone rules from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Read More
New U.S. Restrictions on Telephone Research Prompt Risk Management Debate: Do the new TCPA rules mean you should junk your autodialer? Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 8/3/2015 2:43:00 PM New rules for telephone research from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have dramatically raised the liability risks for telephone survey, opinion and marketing research in the U.S., causing some research companies to go so far in response as to discard most of their dialing equipment. The FCC approved new rules for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) in a Declaratory Ruling and Order on June 18, and released them to the public on July 10 — when the rules immediately went int... Read More
The Physician Payments Sunshine Act: The Insights Industry Position Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 10/28/2014 2:13:00 PM On August 1, 2013, the first reporting period under the Physician Payment Sunshine Act began. Part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka, “Obamacare”), it requires pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers to publicly report many types of payments made to physicians, which will be public. The Sunshine Act was intended to bring transparency to these relationships, to minimize manufacturers’ influence on physicians’ prescribing behavior. Read More
"Push polls" - Deceptive Advocacy/Persuasion Under the Guise of Legitimate Polling Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 10/28/2014 2:08:00 PM The insights industry stands opposed to so-called "push polling," which is not polling at all – it is a form of political campaign messaging or negative phone banking fraudulently disguised as polling. While polling can be properly used to test messages, "push polling" is not a test, but rather an effort to communicate those messages by giving that communication the false appearance of polling. Read More
New Hampshire Push Poll Law Howard Fienberg Government Affairs 10/28/2014 2:04:00 PM New Hampshire law restricts political advocacy telephone calls, which it calls "push-polling." Thanks to a reform (S.B. 196) signed into law on April 23, 2014, the Granite State specifically excludes survey and opinion research. Read More