[5tefan]

I think you need some basic legal understanding to sort that kind of stuff into valid, unsure and invalid. It then depends on your confidence level if you require legal advise. Easier said than done.

From my point of view 45 days is plenty of time to read into the topic. On the other hand: Referring to 45 days was shooting way beyond the target here and unnecessary.

Scaring the author was wrong and by definition always happens without consent. That's what the author can blame the researchers for. This was turned into a 'without consent' situation and I find this to strong. The email is rather clear but is also weird enough to feel like scam.

[dawnbreez]

As has been pointed out elsewhere: "Consent" here is the correct term. This was a study, and studies are supposed to gather consent from participants before they start (barring certain very specific examples).