{
  "id": "CON-162",
  "slug": "con-162",
  "title": "A chat conversation is not a marketing opt-in",
  "statement": "Consent inferred from a chat widget or an inbound conversation must not be used to justify a marketing use case.",
  "rationale": "Somebody who opened a support chat consented to that conversation, not to a promotional programme. The two get conflated because the chat platform holds a phone number and an apparent agreement to be contacted, so the marketing list builds itself out of support enquiries — which is exactly the mismatch between what was agreed and what arrives that drives complaints.",
  "layer": "CONSENT_FLOW",
  "layerSlug": "consent-flow",
  "object": "consent basis vs use case",
  "severity": "HIGH",
  "detectability": [
    "AI_FORM"
  ],
  "failureClass": "TERMINAL_EVIDENCE",
  "authorities": [
    "CTIA"
  ],
  "applicability": {
    "consentMethods": [
      "chat"
    ],
    "useCases": [
      "MARKETING",
      "MIXED",
      "SWEEPSTAKE",
      "LOW_VOLUME"
    ]
  },
  "applicabilityText": "Applies when consent was collected by chat, and the use case is MARKETING, MIXED, SWEEPSTAKE and LOW_VOLUME.",
  "universal": false,
  "remediation": "Either register the programme as customer care, matching what the chat consent actually covers, or add a marketing opt-in inside the chat flow with the full disclosure and record it separately. Done when the use case and the consent describe the same thing.",
  "example": "In-chat: \"Want Acme Coffee offers by text too? Reply YES to opt in — msg frequency varies, msg & data rates may apply, reply STOP to unsubscribe.\" Only repliers join the marketing list.",
  "pitfalls": [
    "A conversational opt-in inside the chat is fine and is the fix; what fails is treating the existence of the conversation as the consent."
  ],
  "phase": "approval",
  "automated": true,
  "url": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/consent-flow/con-162/",
  "markdown": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/consent-flow/con-162.md",
  "registry": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/",
  "updated": "2026-07-25",
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}