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Would people respond the same way if they knew it wasn’t a real request i.e. take it less seriously?

Possibly, but I'd bet the results would be way more accurate. If I got an email from a university I'd heard of, phrased like:

> Hi! We're trying to study CCPA compliance of random sites. Could you help us by answering a few questions?

then I absolutely would have replied, and would have replied honestly. People generally like to be helpful.

That's the problem though -- it will skew the data towards friendly and helpful people like yourself. But it doesn't capture reality.

To be honest, I don't know how you get this sort of analysis done without poisoning the intent and maintaining integrity.

Good point, and I don't know. But in the end, if it's not possible to conduct the study while acting ethically, then the study shouldn't be done.