But can you do research on a business without the businesses consent? Or do I need a businesses consent before sending out identical resumes except one has a stereotypical minority name to attempt to judge discrimination?
Because websites aren’t people. Websites are businesses. A lot don’t make money or fail. They may have a small staff managing them. They may not be ‘for profit’ but they are still businesses.
That’s my issue with the complaints about the study. They blow up and claim to be unwitting participants of human subject research, drawing mental parallels with the Tuskegee experiment when it’s a closer parallel to research performed against companies who were never notified like when researchers sent out identical resumes except for their names.
The researcher definitely could have worded the email better so it didn’t come across as an ominous legal threat. There are valid criticisms against the research. But claiming to be an unwitting subject of a human research experiment is incredibly misleading.