Evidence screenshots must say when and where they were taken
The requirementstatement
Every submitted evidence image must carry its capture timestamp, the source URL, and enough provenance to tie it to the live surface.
- Severityseverity
- MediumMEDIUMUsually survives review, but lowers your trust score or invites a manual look you would rather avoid.
- When it bitesphase
- Gates approvalapprovalGet this wrong and the brand or campaign is refused at registration.
- What is checkedobject
- campaign.consent_artifact[]
- Where it liveslayer
- OperationalOPERATIONAL
- How Ekas settles itdetectability
- AI · formAI_FORM
- A semantic question about what you wrote: whether a description matches a use case, whether a name looks like a filed entity. Judged by a model against written criteria.
- What the fix involvesfailureClass
- Supply evidenceTERMINAL_EVIDENCE
- Needs proof only you hold: a screenshot, a recording, a scan of the form people signed.
- Who requires itauthorities
- CTIAresearcher recommendation
- When it appliesapplicabilityText
- Applies to every 10DLC registration.
Why this rule existsrationale
A screenshot with no provenance is a picture of a form, and a reviewer cannot tell whether it is the live page, a staging build, or a mock-up made for the submission — so the cautious ones reject it and the rest approve something they did not verify. Adding the URL and the date costs one line in the upload and turns the image into evidence, which is the difference the brand is actually being asked for.
How to fix itremediation
Capture the browser address bar in the screenshot, or caption each image with the full URL and the capture date where the surface is not a web page. Done when the image alone tells a reviewer which page it is and when it was taken.
A compliant exampleexample
Screenshot filename optin-signup-2026-03-04.png, captioned "https://acmecoffee.com/signup — captured 4 March 2026, 1440×900", with the address bar visible in the image.
Common mistakespitfalls
- Cropping to the consent block removes the address bar, which is usually the only provenance the image had.
Rules you will hit next
Other operational rules at the same severity. A registration is judged as a whole, not rule by rule.
OPS-032A help request containing a stop-word is not an opt-outMediumMEDIUMOPS-042Somebody has to own revocations that arrive in conversationMediumMEDIUMOPS-050The opt-out confirmation is worth sending inside five minutesMediumMEDIUMOPS-051Only ask which messages to stop when there is more than one kindMediumMEDIUMOPS-057Log the sends you did not makeMediumMEDIUMOPS-062An opted-out consumer must be able to come backMediumMEDIUM
OPS-292 is one of 139 operational rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.