That's not the definition of human subjects research. Not everything that involves a human responding to questions is human subjects research. A lot of comments in this thread are uninformed about the relevant definitions.
You can think the study is poorly designed, unethical, etc. But if they're not obtaining data about a living individual, then it's not human subjects research.
You can think the study is poorly designed, unethical, etc. But if they're not obtaining data about a living individual, then it's not human subjects research.