The ARF (Advertising Research Foundation) has launched its first member code of conduct governing ethical research and related data collection by member companies.
The code addresses industry conduct in relation to research participants, internal and external clients, the profession and the public. It is divided into principles governing general member behavior, as well as principles for specific sector research and data collection, such as for online and location-based analytics.
The ARF plans to enforce the code via a self-regulating “Chain of Trust” system enabling members who commit to the code principles within their research functions, to display an ARF code logo on correspondence and marketing materials.
It is planned that members, who include agencies, marketers, media companies, academics and consultants, use suppliers, agencies and other adtech third parties who have also committed to the values expressed in the code of conduct, whenever possible.
“For an ecosystem such as ours built upon research, data and analytics, the need to ensure that all are conducting themselves in an ethical and responsible manner, based upon agreed guidelines of behavior, is not only morally correct, it is good business,”…
…said Scott McDonald, CEO and President of the ARF.
In developing the code, the ARF looked to build upon existing laws, regulations and codes, where applicable, including GDPR, CCPA, COPPA and HIPAA. Furthermore, the code reinforces ESOMAR’s and the Insights Association’s codes of standards and ethics for market research and data analytics, the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) guidelines for data privacy, and the Neuromarketing Science and Business Association (NMBSA) code of ethics for the application of neuroscience in business.
Responsibilities for general member conduct includes:
- That research participants be engaged voluntarily, that participants should suffer no harm by choosing not to participate and that best practices be used to protect their privacy and PII;
- That members provide honest statements of work and contract agreements to clients, and that clients be informed of all quality control and validation KPIs;
- That members avoid using any harassment or misleading recruitment and sampling techniques when dealing with the public and members will be required to treat PII in strict accordance with their privacy policies and existing law.
Sector specific principles outline that members should state when and how they used automated decision or artificial intelligence systems and provide a clear and easy opt-out ability from this. Researchers should provide consumers with an easy way to withdraw consent for the collection and use of their data
