[danaris]

> Because websites aren’t people.

But websites cannot answer questions.

If your study is simply "how do the servers of various websites respond to my HTTP requests", that doesn't require informed consent, because it's not involving humans.

Once your study moves into the realm of "how do the operators of websites respond to me legal requests", that requires informed consent, because website operators are humans.

It's really very, very simple. If you need responses from human beings, that's human subjects research, and it requires informed consent and greater scrutiny from the IRB.