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Privacy legislation and regulation kicked into gear during February at the state and federal level. The feds are proposing to prohibit all non-compete agreements, and changes are on the table for Kentucky’s new tax on insights services. That is just a taste of what’s been happening this past month in advocacy impacting the insights industry.

As America readies for the grand finale of another football season, we are just beginning our year-long campaign of advocacy across the country, focused so far on privacy legislation at the state and federal level, proposed taxes on insights companies, new HR laws, and potential restrictions on exit polling. Let's dive in...

With American Thanksgiving now in the rearview mirror, let’s look back at the biggest challenges the insights industry tangled with this month, including new privacy rules in California and at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC); some wins, losses and new laws in California; and new federal labor rules that could treat research subjects receiving incentives as if they are employees of research companies.

Consumer data privacy and security concerns, including progress towards a new trans-Atlantic data deal, a new law in California and proposed rules in California and at the FTC, were top of mind for the insights industry in October. In addition, concerns about draft U.S. Department of Labor regulations impacting research subjects’ status as independent contractors, and miscellaneous other new laws, remain salient.

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.

As summer approaches, the Insights Association continues to engage on state privacy legislation, new prohibitions on selling insights services to Russia, the Census Bureau’s Ask U.S. Panel, possible taxes aimed at online insights companies, and other pressing policy issues.

Since our last Fighting for You, the Insights Association has been charging full-steam into debates over consumer privacy and data security at the state, federal and trans-national levels; opposing a new project at the Census Bureau that would compete directly against the insights industry; scrutinizing Congressional legislation and possible Securities and Exchange Commission regulation that could treat research subjects like employees, instead of independent contractors; and advocating against ...

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.