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CCPA Scam – Human subject research study conducted by Princeton University

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Re: CCPA Scam – Human subject research study conducted by Princeton University

#31

I'm the person who wrote that blog post. I got an email from a fake person in France who asked several questions about my small social media site's CCPA compliance, then ended the letter with: > I look forward to your reply without undue delay and at most within 45 days of this email, as required by Section 1798.130 of the California Civil Code. I thought I was about to be sued by someone who was the equivalent of a…

[deleted]

Re: CCPA Scam – Human subject research study conducted by Princeton University

#32
I've gotten 4 of these mails to 4 of my domains (including my personal domain used just for email, and a one-page documentation site for an open source library)... 2 about CCPA and 2 about GDPR. They also gave me a lot of anxiety for no reason. Looking at the responses on Twitter, a lot of websites spent real money consulting lawyers before responding to these mails due to the thinly veiled threat of legal repercussions at the end of each one.

Re: CCPA Scam – Human subject research study conducted by Princeton University

#33

Yep, we got the same. Seriously unethical behavior.

Please explain why this is unethical. The worst case is that you’re simply subject to the law. Presumably you’re abiding by the law. edit: I'm playing devil's advocate. I think the law sucks, the study is weird, and I empathize directly with the blog author. That said, downvoting to 'disagree' without explaining your reasoning is below the grade of this fine institution.

From the perspective of someone not living in the US, how on earth would one be expected to know what "the law" in California is?

Re: CCPA Scam – Human subject research study conducted by Princeton University

#35
post #12

I'm the person who wrote that blog post. I got an email from a fake person in France who asked several questions about my small social media site's CCPA compliance, then ended the letter with: > I look forward to your reply without undue delay and at most within 45 days of this email, as required by Section 1798.130 of the California Civil Code. I thought I was about to be sued by someone who was the equivalent of a…

I agree that you were wronged by these so-called ‘researchers’, but it’s also tragic that our legal systems are so bad that everyone fears them. The legal system should be a low-stress, reliable, and predictable way to avoid or reduce conflict, instead of a weapon of terror.

What's more annoying is that the decision to construct the email as a non-academic "other person" was a CONSCIOUS decision by the research team (most likely the advisor). I don't see what benefit hiding behind the illusion gathered does for the information beyond worrying the recipients wouldn't respond to a more traditional "We are researching CCPA..." style email.

IRB does allow for deception, just to be clear. Its annoying, but sometimes that's what's needed to get genuine responses. HOWEVER, the hoops the team needed to do to justify its use here was very poorly executed.

Re: CCPA Scam – Human subject research study conducted by Princeton University

#36
post #30

I'm the person who wrote that blog post. I got an email from a fake person in France who asked several questions about my small social media site's CCPA compliance, then ended the letter with: > I look forward to your reply without undue delay and at most within 45 days of this email, as required by Section 1798.130 of the California Civil Code. I thought I was about to be sued by someone who was the equivalent of a…

I don't understand why you reacted so strongly. I feel like it's not a big deal to receive a message like that; what am I missing?

Have you ever been a sole proprietor in California[0]? Do you have a family?

Adding something about a timeframe and quoting the law clearly signals legal troubles. I would have 'reacted strongly' too.

[0] https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/business/types/sole-proprietorsh...

Re: CCPA Scam – Human subject research study conducted by Princeton University

#37
post #30

I'm the person who wrote that blog post. I got an email from a fake person in France who asked several questions about my small social media site's CCPA compliance, then ended the letter with: > I look forward to your reply without undue delay and at most within 45 days of this email, as required by Section 1798.130 of the California Civil Code. I thought I was about to be sued by someone who was the equivalent of a…

I don't understand why you reacted so strongly. I feel like it's not a big deal to receive a message like that; what am I missing?

Because it sounds like a letter you’d receive from someone who’s prepared to abuse the legal system to extract money from you. Also I think the OP pretty well described their reaction: they were afraid they were going to be sued.

Re: CCPA Scam – Human subject research study conducted by Princeton University

#38
post #30

I'm the person who wrote that blog post. I got an email from a fake person in France who asked several questions about my small social media site's CCPA compliance, then ended the letter with: > I look forward to your reply without undue delay and at most within 45 days of this email, as required by Section 1798.130 of the California Civil Code. I thought I was about to be sued by someone who was the equivalent of a…

I don't understand why you reacted so strongly. I feel like it's not a big deal to receive a message like that; what am I missing?

I'm just running a hobby website. I'm not at all used to receiving letters that bring up legal questions, then give me a time frame to reply as per a specific law. To my non-lawyer reading, that looks like someone's doing their homework to figure out how to drag me into court. Judging from a lot of the responses I've gotten from other recipients, I'm far from the only one.

Re: CCPA Scam – Human subject research study conducted by Princeton University

#40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please explain why this is unethical. The worst case is that you’re simply subject to the law. Presumably you’re abiding by the law. edit: I'm playing devil's advocate. I think the law sucks, the study is weird, and I empathize directly with the blog author. That said, downvoting to 'disagree' without explaining your reasoning is below the grade of this fine institution.

From the perspective of someone not living in the US, how on earth would one be expected to know what "the law" in California is?

Part of the premise of the nation state is that you don't need to abide by other countries' laws. If you're doing business within that nation state, you're required to operate by their laws.
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