Also, the text on the page reads as tone-deaf enough for me to wonder if it's deliberately written to misrepresent the nature of the study activities to people on the IRB who are unfamiliar with technology. A quick Googling for everyone on the Stanford IRB Committee [1] shows Kyle Jamieson [2] as the only CS person – everyone else seems to be a clinician, scientist, or administrator.
> As part of the study, we are asking public websites about their processes for responding to GDPR and CCPA data access requests. We attempt to identify a website's correct email address for data access requests through an automated system.
You cannot "ask a website" and a website doesn't have a "correct email address". Given the targeted nature of the emails, I have trouble believing that these phrases were written in good faith by someone who understands that they are emailing the webmaster for a website, and expect an answer within a reasonable timeframe.
> As part of the study, we are asking public websites about their processes for responding to GDPR and CCPA data access requests. We attempt to identify a website's correct email address for data access requests through an automated system.
You cannot "ask a website" and a website doesn't have a "correct email address". Given the targeted nature of the emails, I have trouble believing that these phrases were written in good faith by someone who understands that they are emailing the webmaster for a website, and expect an answer within a reasonable timeframe.
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[1] https://ria.princeton.edu/Human-Research/Committee
[2] https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~kylej/