IA Bans Fraudsters, Sees Off 'Damaging' Data Proposals

In the US, the Insights Association (IA) has permanently barred four individuals from membership after they pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud over a decade from 2014. Separately, the IA reports that a bill potentially damaging insight professionals in California has been stopped.

In the federal case involving Op4G, Slice (SliceMR), and SNWare, Frank Hayden, Daniel Harriman and Ryan Stoudt entered their guilty pleas in February and March this year, while Frank Nappo, who was Op4G's Chief Executive, did so more recently, on August 31st, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The four's membership had been suspended in April last year - along with that of SliceMR - pending final judgement or pleas.

Prosecutors said the conspirators had decided in 2014 to boost revenues by generating fabricated survey data, and to this end recruited 'ants,' who pretended to be legitimate survey takers but instead were paid a nominal fee for completing surveys that produced false market research data. Some of the conspirators also served as 'ants' themselves. Tactics shared between the defendants and their ants included ways to answer screener questions, and usage of a VPN to conceal IP addresses. Three more co-defendants remain international fugitives. Further details of the case are in a DRNO article from April last year.

IA Chief Exec Anita Watkins says of the decision, 'Our clients, our research subjects, and the public depend on one thing above all else from this industry: that the insights we provide are real. Fraud like this is a betrayal of that trust, and it demands a clear and lasting response. We will continue to insist on transparency and honesty at every step of the research process, from how participants are sourced to how data is delivered. The thousands of ethical organizations and professionals in our industry have earned their reputation, and we will not let it be defined by the actions of a few criminals.'


Separately, the IA also reported today that California Governor Gavin Newsom had vetoed a bill, California A.B. 1542, which would have prohibited most companies from selling sensitive personal information to a third party. Newsom said that while he 'supports the author's goal of protecting the sensitive personal information of Californians', he feared a 'categorical ban was a step too far,' and that there would be 'unintended consequences if consumers are removed entirely from the decision process.'

The IA had opposed the law - Senior VP Advocacy Howard Fienberg said it 'would have particularly hurt independent audience measurement of advertising and other content, undermining the accuracy of media and advertising valuation.' Both the IA and the Governor pointed to existing California state law, which requires companies to give consumers the option to limit the sharing of such information, and Feinberg said the law 'would have abandoned the framework of consumer control that the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) was designed to advance.'

Web site: www.insightsassociation.org .