Overview

Fullpath's communication preferences system governs whether, and how, a shopper can be contacted across all Fullpath products. Understanding how consent is recorded, evaluated, and enforced is essential for accurately advising clients on contact reachability and expected product behavior.

To understand which sources and how much consent data coverage is available on your account, read about the Consent Management Dashboard here.

Scope

This article covers:

• How consent data is structured and stored
• Where consent signals come from
• How the system determines the governing consent state
• How each product responds to consent changes
• Key exceptions (Lead Handling and transactional communication)
• What is visible in the Dashboard

For information on the Consent Management Dashboard - which highlights

Contact-Level Data Structure

Consent in Fullpath is tracked at the contact entity level — meaning a specific phone number or email address is the unit of record, not the shopper as a whole. A single shopper may have multiple phone numbers and email addresses, each with its own independent consent status.

Each preference record includes:

• Contact type — email address, phone SMS, or phone call
• Contact value — the normalized email or phone number
• Opt-in status — opted in or opted out
• Source — what system or event generated this record (see Sources below)
• Source date — the timestamp of the consent event

This structure replaces earlier shopper-level opt-in/out tracking and allows the system to maintain a complete, auditable history for every contact method on record.

Default behavior when no history exists:

Sources of Consent Signals

The platform recognizes consent updates from the following sources. These appear in the Dashboard's Communication Preferences dialog history log, and on the Shopper Timeline:

Chronological Consent: How the Governing State Is Determined

The system evaluates consent chronologically. The most recent consent record for a given contact (phone number or email address) is treated as the governing state, regardless of source.

Example: A shopper's mobile number is marked as opted out after an SMS unsubscribe event (source: nurture). Three weeks later, a CRM sync brings in a record for that same number marked as opted in (source: crm). Because the CRM record has a later source_date, the number is now treated as opted in and contactable for SMS.

This applies across all sources. There is no source hierarchy — only recency. A user-input update does not automatically override a national-dnc record if the DNC record is more recent, and vice versa. Learn more about the National DNC and how Fullpath uses that data in our unified consent logic flows.
 

Important: A contact appearing opted out in a historical view may now be contactable if a more recent opt-in signal has come in from any source. Always reference the current preference state shown in the Communication Preferences dialog, not past timeline entries.

How Products Respond to Consent Changes

All Fullpath products listen to the unified consent platform bidirectionally. When a contact's preference changes — regardless of the source — an update is propagated in real time to all relevant activation products. No manual sync is required.

Audience Activation (email/SMS campaigns)

• Email deliveries are blocked when the email address is explicitly opted out
• SMS deliveries are blocked unless the phone number is explicitly opted in
• Failure reasons recorded in delivery logs: RECIPIENT_IS_OPT_OUT (email) or RECIPIENT_IS_NOT_OPT_IN (SMS)
• Override National DNC (read more)

Paid Advertisement

• Audience segments and suppression lists are updated in response to consent changes

Website Engagement

• Opt-in signals captured through on-site forms are written to the preferences system and propagate to other products

CRM (Fullpath)

• Communication preference updates made in the Dashboard (via user-input) are written to the unified preferences store and push to connected dealership CRMs where supported (e.g., DealerSocket, DriveCentric)
   
• Conversely, opt-out signals from connected CRMs are received and written into the platform

Lead Handling: The Transactional Exception

Lead Handling (LH) is exempt from standard opt-out enforcement.

Lead Handling operates as a transactional communication service. When a shopper submits a lead — filling out a form, requesting a quote, initiating contact — that action constitutes a transactional interaction. Transactional communications are legally distinct from promotional outreach and are not subject to the same consent requirements under applicable regulations (including the TCPA and CAN-SPAM Act).

As a result:

• LH will respond to all inbound leads regardless of DNC status, SMS opt-out status, or email opt-out status
• This behavior is by design and does not indicate a platform error or misconfiguration
• LH activity on a DNC-flagged contact should be expected and does not expose the dealership to regulatory risk in the context of that lead response

If a client raises a concern about LH contacting a DNC number: confirm this is expected transactional behavior. Escalate only if the contact did not initiate any lead action that triggered the response.

Communication Types Reference

What Is Visible in the Dashboard

Communication Preferences dialog (Shopper profile)

Accessible from the Shopper's CDP profile page or the CRM Customer Record page. Displays the current opt-in/opt-out state for each contact (email addresses and phone numbers), including:

• The current status per contact type (email, SMS, call)
• The source of the most recent preference event
• The timestamp of that event
• An activity log showing the full preference history for each contact, ordered most recent first

Shopper Timeline

Preference change events appear as COMMUNICATION_PREFERENCE entries on the shopper's timeline. The timeline can be filtered by this category. Each event entry displays the contact value, source, and actor (the user or system that triggered the change).

Both of these views reflect the live state of the communication_preferences table. The history is deduplicated — entries that share the same contact type, value, opt-in state, and source are consolidated, keeping the earliest source_date for that state.

FAQ

Why does a contact show as opted in even though the client says they unsubscribed? A more recent opt-in signal came in after the unsubscribe. Check the full preference history in the Communication Preferences dialog to see the sequence of events and their sources.
 

Can a client manually override a National DNC flag? Yes — a user-input update with a later source_date will govern. However, clients and their teams should be advised of the legal risk of contacting numbers on the National DNC list for promotional purposes, even if the platform allows it.
 

Why is LH contacting a shopper who is on DNC? This is expected behavior. LH responds to transactional leads regardless of DNC or opt-out status. See Lead Handling: The Transactional Exception above.
 

Is the preference history permanent? The preference history log shows all active records. Deactivated preference records (e.g., a DNC flag that is later resolved) are excluded from the visible history but remain in the database for audit purposes