Consent and opt-outs

The single question that decides whether a call or a text is fine or expensive: did this person agree to hear from you?

Important: Not legal advice. The federal rule here is the TCPA, and states layer their own on top. Penalties are assessed per message, which is why a bad list of two thousand numbers is not a small mistake.

What counts as consent

Good consent looks like this. Someone filled out your form, called you, texted you first, or signed something that says you may contact them, and you can prove when and how.

The strongest version has three parts:

1. They gave you the number themselves
2. It was clear they would get calls or texts about it, including automated ones
3. You kept the record: the form, the timestamp, the wording they saw

This is not consent:

• A number you bought on a list
• A number you scraped from a directory or a map
• A number a friend gave you
• Someone who filled out a form for something else entirely
• Someone who told you to stop last year

Warning: Consent cannot be a condition of purchase, and it does not transfer. Permission to contact one business is not permission for the business that bought their data.

How LeadBind records consent

The AI calls a lead only when consent is on file. It gets there one of three ways:

• The lead arrived with it. A lead from a form, an ad or a vendor counts as consented only when what was sent says so: a consent field set to yes, or a TrustedForm or Jornaya certificate. A lead that arrives without one is saved, and the AI does not call it. The field that carried the consent is recorded on the lead.
• You attest to a list. You confirm every contact on it gave prior express consent. LeadBind records who confirmed, when, the wording version and how many contacts it covered. Leads added later are not covered until you confirm again.
• You confirm it for one number. An AI call to a number that is not a saved lead asks you first whether the person agreed to be called, including by an AI voice. From a connected AI tool, the tool has to say so with consent: true. The confirmation is recorded with who gave it and when, before the call is placed.

LeadBind records what you and your sources tell it. It cannot see how consent was collected, so it cannot confirm it.

Where you confirm it

Two separate confirmations, each in one place:

• Your account: "My leads agreed to be called". On the Front desk page, under Auto-dialer. Auto-dialing stays off until this is confirmed. Withdrawing it turns auto-dialing off. Beside it, Only dial opted-in leads narrows calls and texts to leads with a recorded opt-in, so a list you attested no longer counts.
• Each list: Attest consent. On Leads, open a saved list's More menu and choose Attest consent. This is how a lead without a recorded opt-in gets consent on file.

Compliance shows where both stand and points to these two places.

Existing customers

If someone is already your customer, you generally have more room to contact them about the business you actually do together. That is not unlimited, it does not cover marketing something unrelated, and it ends the moment they ask you to stop.

Opt-outs

Someone can withdraw consent any time, by any reasonable means. They do not have to say a magic word.

What LeadBind does automatically:

• A reply of STOP adds that number to your do-not-contact list and blocks every further text
• Saying it on a call works too. When the person on the other end clearly asks to stop, to be taken off your list, or to be put on a do-not-call list, the number goes on your suppression list and the lead is marked do-not-call as soon as the call ends. Any follow-up that call would have started is stopped. LeadBind listens for clear requests only, so "call me back Friday" is not an opt-out
• The list is checked before every single send, not once when a sequence starts

What you have to do:

• Honor a stop request that did not come through LeadBind. If someone tells you in person, on another line, or by email, add them yourself. The same goes for a request on a call that was not worded clearly enough to catch.
• Do not undo it. Re-importing an old CSV that contains an opted-out number is the most common way people break this, and LeadBind's suppression list is what saves you. Do not work around it.
• Never argue with it. A person who opts out and gets one more message is exactly the plaintiff you do not want.

Time of day

LeadBind holds AI calls and texts to 8am to 9pm in the recipient's own local time. That is the federal boundary, not a house preference. It covers:

• The automatic dialer, list runs and campaigns
• A single AI call from the dial button, or placed by a connected AI tool
• The instant call-back to a new lead
• Automated texts and reminders
• A text you type yourself, with one exception: a reply to a text that person sent you in the last 24 hours goes out when you send it, because that is a conversation they started

A single call or a typed text refused for the hour says when the window next opens. Automated calls and texts are held and sent then, not dropped.

The window is worked out from the lead, not from your clock: the state on the lead record, or else the area code of the number. A Texas business never reaches a California customer at 6am. Where a state spans two time zones, such as Texas, Florida, Tennessee or Kentucky, the time has to be inside the window in both, so a Texas lead is not called before 9am Central, which is 8am in El Paso. A number can travel with its owner, so this is a careful estimate, not a fact.

A call you place and talk on yourself from the dialer is not held by these checks. Keep to the same window.

Your own calling hours sit inside it, and the automatic dialer starts narrower still, at 9am to 7pm in the lead's time, until you change them.

Two things this means:

• Set your timezone correctly. Availability, then Timezone. It drives the times offered to callers, the times read back, and the hours your own automations keep.
• A form that comes in at midnight is not called at midnight. The instant call-back waits until it is between 9am and 7pm for the lead and inside your calling hours. The automatic dialer then picks it up if the Inbound Leads list has AI dialing turned on; otherwise it waits for you. Speed to lead is fast, not reckless.

Keeping records

If you are ever challenged, your records are the defense. Keep:

• Where each lead came from and when
• The exact wording of the consent language on your form
• Every opt-out, and when you honored it

LeadBind keeps the lead source, the consent timestamp and where it came from, every confirmation behind an AI call to a number that is not a saved lead, and the opt-out list for you. The wording on your own form is yours to keep, and it is the piece people forget. Screenshot your form today.

Special cases worth naming

• Insurance, mortgage, credit repair, real estate. Your industry has its own rules on top of these, and you hold the license, not us. See Modes and industries.
• Anything your assistant dials for you. If you gave a key the dial permission, calls it places are your calls. Everything on this page applies. See Keys and permissions.
• Texting at all. Requires carrier registration before it works properly. See A2P.