The researcher invented false identities, and then used them to imply a legal requirement to expend labor and respond without notifying the recipient that they were just doing a study for academia. There are plenty of things you are allowed to do as an ordinary citizen that are considered unethical in an academic context.
As an absurd example of something that is highly unethical, but perfectly legal: research into whether certain images or colors on protest signs are likely to elicit a response. You choose military funerals as the protest site. In the US the right to protest at a funeral has been confirmed by the courts. This would still be an unethical action.
Many companies, including ones that I’ve worked for, that received a message like this would take it VERY seriously and expend some expensive resources (lawyers and programmers) to discover that ccpa does not apply and that they aren’t required to respond.
A more ethical way to gather this data would have been to be honest about identity and purpose, Notify the recipient that their response would be anonymized and never used against them, and to inform them that a response is not required.
As an absurd example of something that is highly unethical, but perfectly legal: research into whether certain images or colors on protest signs are likely to elicit a response. You choose military funerals as the protest site. In the US the right to protest at a funeral has been confirmed by the courts. This would still be an unethical action.
Many companies, including ones that I’ve worked for, that received a message like this would take it VERY seriously and expend some expensive resources (lawyers and programmers) to discover that ccpa does not apply and that they aren’t required to respond.
A more ethical way to gather this data would have been to be honest about identity and purpose, Notify the recipient that their response would be anonymized and never used against them, and to inform them that a response is not required.