Compliance Features

At Sonar, we take consumer protection very seriously. Lately, data security and compliance has become a very hot topic of discussion, especially when it comes to digital protection of personal data on the web. It can be even more stressful having for companies to learn and adapt to the ever-changing landscape of laws. However, there’s no need to worry because Sonar has got your back. We are texting experts and will inform you when laws pass or change. Sonar does everything to ensure our partners remain compliant. That is why we are one of the only SMS solutions with a dedicated compliance suite.

Compliance Laws

CCPA
The state of California introduced legislation for the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which took effect Jan 1, 2020. This bill intends to give Californians rights over the personal data companies collect. Companies have to disclose what information they collect, if they sell your information, and are required to provide an opt-out function.

GDPR
In the European Union, they implemented a General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which took effect in May 2018. GDPR aims to bring all the EU member states under one umbrella by enforcing a single data protection law, intending to put guidelines and regulations on how data is processed, used, stored or exchanged.

TCPA
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) was one of the first consumer protection laws enacted to protect consumers. This law created the basis of required telecom compliance. Companies cannot call consumers before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., maintain a do-not-call list, and must disclose their name/pertaining information.

For more API information on CCPA/GDPR endpoints, check out our GDPR GET Request and GDPR DELETE Request pages.

Features

**Double Opt-In**
For information about setting up this feature, please visit our Double Opt-In page.

Double opt-in is a two-step verification process to confirm customers to your messaging list. Enabling double opt-in allows you to generate a messaging list that complies with TCPA policies. It provides the best end user experience, as well as keeping legal liabilities related to text messaging to a minimum.

With double opt in, you’re making the opt-in process very explicit so you know the end user wants to receive messages and are expecting to receive messages. Double opt-in starts with an inbound message from an end user (contact), the feature then sends back a confirmation message, which includes a keyword for the end user to reply with.

**Intelligent Timezone Compliance**
For more detailed information and to learn how it works, please visit our Intelligent Timezone Compliance page.

The Intelligent Timezone Compliance feature is an added safety measure to avoid sending texts to your customers or prospects during non-business and unapproved hours as stated by TCPA law guidelines. Under TCPA policies, companies are allowed to text consumers only between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the respective timezone of the recipient. Failure to maintain these standards can lead to hefty fines.

**Auto-Unsubscribe**
When a customer asks you to stop messaging them, we automatically unsubscribe and prevent further communication.

If a customer messages in any of the below keywords, Sonar automatically unsubscribes them in your system.

• Stop
• Unsubscribe
• End
• Cancel
• Quit

We also allow for custom STOP and HELP keywords that will automatically trigger when a recipient responds with one of those keywords

**Sensitive Message Deletion**
We perform sensitive message deletion upon request. Sonar will remove sensitive content from messages such as credit card numbers, phishing/illicit content, and other personally identifiable information. We use SSL and HTTPS for end-to-end encryption, as well as encrypting our database.