[ad404b8a372f2b9]

He understands perfectly well. What's relevant is whether the response is a property of the individual or the organization, and it's arguable, and controversial, but you'll find a lot of studies performed using this technique that were not considered human subjects research.

As to whether it's deceptive and threatening (the latter of which I find pretty hyperbolic, this is a pretty boilerplate request), that has no relevance as to whether it's human subjects research.

Maybe they should have limited the scope to larger organizations.

[mynameisvlad]

Someone looking up the exact statute and quoting it, while not a direct legal threat, certainly carries a lot of implied threats. People don't just look up legal statutes for shits and giggles.