> Woah, the thing that leapt out at me, as a professor, is that they somehow got an exemption from the UMN institutional review board. .... in addition to being conducted deceptively

There are cases where deception (as they call it) can be approved (even by ethics boards). Based on the Verge's article, this research setup should not have been approved even by then. But the topic itself seems as relevant as ever with the xz case and all.