The document dates must not predate the last change to the programme
The requirementstatement
The last-updated dates on the privacy policy and the terms must be no older than the last material change to the messaging programme.
- 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
- privacy policy + terms dates vs the last programme change
- Where it liveslayer
- Policy pagesPOLICY_PAGE
- 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
- Fix the policyTERMINAL_POLICY
- The fix lives in your privacy policy or SMS terms. Ekas can generate the missing clauses.
- Who requires itauthorities
- CTIA
- When it appliesapplicabilityText
- Applies to every 10DLC registration.
Why this rule existsrationale
A programme that gained a message category last month, documented by terms dated two years ago, is telling subscribers about a programme that no longer exists — and CTIA asks for up-to-date information rather than merely dated information. The dates are the cheapest way for a reviewer to spot it, which makes a stale date an invitation to read the rest more carefully.
How to fix itremediation
Update both documents whenever the programme changes materially — a new message category, a new opt-in surface, a changed frequency — and set the date by hand when you do. Done when both dates are at least as recent as the last change.
A compliant exampleexample
Programme gained cart reminders in June 2026; both documents now read "Last updated: 1 July 2026".
Notesnotes
Authored as a judgement rather than as a predicate on purpose. Comparing a published date against a change that happened "N days ago" needs a clock, and a rule whose verdict changes with the calendar cannot be pinned by a fixture — the corpus would drift silently. The judge is given the campaign fields, which carry how long ago the programme last changed where the caller knows it. Whether a date is present at all is POL-141.
Rules you will hit next
Other policy pages rules at the same severity. A registration is judged as a whole, not rule by rule.
POL-020A non-English site needs an English policyMediumMEDIUMPOL-027The policy URLs must stay live after approvalMediumMEDIUMPOL-028Keep a dated copy of both documents as submittedMediumMEDIUMPOL-058A service-provider carve-back is required, not prohibitedMediumMEDIUMPOL-076The privacy policy must describe data handling, not sell the programmeMediumMEDIUMPOL-104The policy must say how message content is handledMediumMEDIUM
POL-233 is one of 157 policy pages rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.