Of course, there are other ethical and legal requirements that you're bound to, not just this one. I'm not sure which requirements IRBs in the US look into though, it's a pretty murky situation.
It seems to qualify per §46.102(e)(1)(i) ("Human subject means a living individual about whom an investigator [..] conducting research: (i) Obtains information [...] through [...] interaction with the individual, and uses, studies, or analyzes the information [...]")
I don't think it'd qualify for any of the exemptions in 46.104(d): 1 requires an educational setting, 2 requires standard tests, 3 requires pre-consent and interactions must be "benign", 4 is only about the use of PII with no interactions, 5 is only about public programs, 6 is only about food, 7 is about storing PII and not applicable and 8 requires "broad" pre-consent and documentation of a waiver.
It's not worth arguing about this; if you care, you can try to change the law. In the meantime, IRBs will do what IRBs do.
Since IRBs exist to minimize liability, it seems like that would be that fastest route towards change (assuming you have legal standing )
Frankly universities and academics need to be taken to court far more often. Our society routinely turns a blind eye to all sorts of fraudulent and unethical practices inside academia and it has to stop.
I had a look at section §46.104 https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/regulations/... since it mentioned exemptions, and at (d) (3) inside that. It still doesn't apply: there's no agreement to participate, it's not benign, it's not anonymous.
IRBs are like the TSA. Imposing annoyance and red tape on the honest vast-majority while failing to actually filter the 0.0001% of things they ostensibly exist to filter.