I recall reading a similar article regarding Citizen Lab where the researchers were also baited through interviews for new positions or capital/sponsorship in their relevant studies.
Edit, found the previous HN article (this is the same article but on a different site, the NY Times article is no longer accessible):
The article this discussion is about starts with a mention of Citizen Lab. It's true that the first sentence doesn't directly mention Citizen Lab, but it's tied together starting with the 8th paragraph.