Getting into Trouble in Maryland

In an article in Tech Dirt they observe the following:

But his new argument takes it even further, arguing not just that they were unethical, but flat out illegal, based on his reading of the Common Rule and a particular Maryland law that effectively extends the Common Rule. The Common Rule basically says that if you're doing "research involving human subjects" with federal funds, you need "informed consent" and further approval from an institutional review board (IRB), which basically all research universities have in place, who have to approve all research. The idea is to avoid seriously harmful or dangerous experiments. The Maryland law takes the Common Rule and says it applies not just to federally funded research but "all research conducted in Maryland." 

Now this is in response to the  Facebook user test for what makes someone happy. Facebook allegedly manipulated what users saw based upon some criterion and then published the results.

Now if the above theory holds, then any market research, for example, in Maryland, without both an IRB and signed consent is criminal. Perhaps that is the case. Maryland is a strange place, I live there for a few years and it is an amalgam of many strange interests.

But if this is correct, then if I were to approach someone to ask their opinion, say at a party, and my day job was as a pollster then I may be committing a crime if I were in Maryland.

This is a classic example, if true, of the collection of laws that were half baked and that can be used to silence anyone.

In fact, one may consider the extreme, if for example you walk down the street and say, "How are you?", perhaps that could be considered research and without a written consent one is guilty of a crime. In many ways this is a classic example of Legislators and the Executive going a bit too far. Thank God for EZPass, I cannot be tempted to be friendly to any Maryland toll taker.