The insights industry scored important legislative victories in the last month for pharmaceutical MR in Pennsylvania, data security in Utah, and more COVID-19 small business loans and grants at the federal level and in California. At the same time, we’re staring down lots of problematic legislation, including a new comprehensive data privacy law in Virginia and a complex excise tax on data collection in New York. Meanwhile, advocacy continues on issues like: California A.B. 2257; worrisome legislation in Congress that would allow for the unionization of research subjects; limitations on coronavirus-related exposure liability; the census; and restrictions on exit polling.

While the COVID-19 crisis “caused massive disruptions to the decennial census, which the Census Bureau is still trying to clean up… it also laid the groundwork for massive changes to the way the federal government looks at data.”

February may have the fewest days, but this month certainly is not short on legislative activity pertinent to the insights community, including comprehensive privacy bills, data security legislation, new taxes on the industry, liability limitation for COVID-19-related exposure, new leadership to oversee the census, and new rules for determining independent contractor status. Changes are also in the works for California A.B. 2257.

While the Insights Association was unable to get legislation passed before the end of 2020 to extend th

Congratulating U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden on his recent electoral victory, the leading trade association for the marketing research and data analytics industry urged him to focus on five key "challenges facing the Census Bureau" so that his incoming Administration "may hit the ground running."

The Insights Association joined with 370 other organizations in a joint letter urging the U.S. Senate “to give the U.S. Census Bureau sufficient time to thoroughly implement complex data processing activities and complete the most accurate 2020 Census possible.”

On October 13, the U.S. Supreme Court stayed a preliminary lower court injunction that had prevented the White House from ending the 2020 Census early. Counting operations will now end by October 15, with the Administration still aiming to deliver apportionment data from the 2020 Census on December 31, 2020.

August is normally quiet in Washington, DC, but in keeping with the theme of 2020, this month has been more frenetic. While we beat back new taxes on the insights industry, the Insights Association has had to tangle with the demise of the U.S.-EU Privacy Shield for data transfer, further pandemic relief, some new threats to pharma MR, the finalization of CCPA, and an attempt to rush the 2020 Census that threatens the statistical viability of most marketing research and data analytics in the U.S.

The American business community banded together today in support of extending “the statutory reporting deadlines for the 2020 Census by four months.” Eighty-seven business groups and companies warned Congressional leaders that “a rushed census in the midst of the current public health crisis will harm every state, every business, and every industry in the country relying upon the resulting data."