But at the end of the day a "website" -- whether it's a large organization, a small business or a sole proprietor-- is still maintained by people. There might b

But at the end of the day a "website" -- whether it's a large organization, a small business or a sole proprietor-- is still maintained by people. There might be a process in place if it's a large enough company, it might even get directly sent to the lawyers to deal with. But at the end of the day someone has to look at the email and respond, and in many cases that can cost money. To wave off the whole thing as "we're contacting a website not a person" just shirks all the responsibility of ethically experimenting on people, which is what the study actually does.