I am absolutely positive you misinterpreted the "based on research". What they mean is their staff checking LinkedIn profiles and the like, just as in my case. Where did you get this interpretation from? You post the exact wording of message from your broker but then you make some crazy hoop into imaginary conspiracy land....
The wording from the broker:
Clients recently received a request to update their account status to determine if they should be identified as professionals under the NYSE definition. Most likely, if you received a notice about your accounts potentially being changed to professional status, it is because you are or have been registered in some way, you are an LLC/Corporation, or were flagged by NYSE based on research which they deemed Professional.
The research being refereed to is going to NYSE.com and looking at who knows what on their site. The NYSE was acting like some crazy hacker sniffing out the originating IP, so they could try to scam traders into paying the professional fee.