You can write an informed consent in a short way. I think that it will be better. Informed consent or informed request is a kindly approach and it shows that you are a respectful person.
In the United States, universities and large institutions all have Human Subjects Review Committees. At the very least you should be familiar with the ethical standards for human research. The American Psychological Association provides the following resources at http://www.apa.org/research/responsible/human/?tab=4
Human Research Protections
Research with human participants has proven invaluable, in advancing knowledge in the biomedical, behavioral and social sciences. Such research is strictly regulated, with laws at the federal, state and local levels. Further, professional societies have developed discipline-specific standards, policies and guidelines for ensuring that the rights and welfare of research participants is protected.
In the early 1970s, following widely publicized cases of research abuse, The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research was created to study issues surrounding the protection of humans in research. In 1979 the Commission issued a report entitled Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research (commonly called the Belmont Report), which provided the ethical framework on which current federal regulations for the protection of human participants in research are based.
Below is a brief listing of legislation and regulations that affect the conduct of research with human participants.
Public Health Services Act
Dept. of Health & Human Services — 45CFR46
Food and Drug Administration — 21CFR50 & 21CFR56 (PDF, 106KB)
Dept. of Education (34CFR98 & 34CFR99)
HIPAA
The Privacy Rule
Mandatory Reporters: Summary of State Laws (PDF, 493KB)
NIH Policy on Required Education in the Protection of Human Research Participants
Four major ethics codes:
Canadian Psychological Association
Human Factors & Ergonomics Society
Society for Research in Child Development
The British Psychological Society (PDF, 199KB)
Guiding documents:
Institutional Review Boards (IRB)
IRB Guidebook
Expedited Review Categories
IRBs & Psychological Science (APA Report)
Recommendations of the 2007 APA Presidential Task Force on IRBs and Psychological Science (PDF, 36KB)
HIPAA
Impact of HIPAA on Research
Understanding HIPAA (PDF, 3.59MB)
FAQ
Research on the Internet
Psychological Research Online: Opportunities and Challenges
AAAS Report on Human Subjects Research on the Internet (PDF, 64KB)
Conducting Research on the Internet (PDF, 112KB) — British Psychological Society