Consent that cannot be tied to a person
Lead buyers often hold a certificate from a vendor in place of the wording the person saw. Courts have refused consent records that the company could not authenticate.
Contact Gate
Ask before every call or text.
Contact Gate answers allow or block before a call is dialed or a text is sent, using the consent on file, do-not-call status, the recipient's local time, state rules and any opt-out. It writes the reason to the record.
What goes wrong
The rules are checked once, and the contact happens later.
Most teams scrub a list before a campaign. The answer can change between the scrub and the dial, and the federal and state rules no longer line up.
Opt-outs that stop at one system
Federal rules give callers a short deadline, counted in business days, to honor an opt-out made by any reasonable means. An FCC order adopted in September 2026 changes how far an opt-out reaches and is due to take effect in late November 2026.
Federal and state rules that disagree
Federal courts have split on whether some claims cover text messages and on whether consent must be written. Several states have moved the other way and brought texts inside their telemarketing laws, some with narrower calling hours.
AI agents that dial without asking
The FCC ruled in 2024 that AI-generated voices are artificial voices, so those calls need the same consent as a prerecorded call. An agent that places calls needs the same check a human caller gets.
How it works
One question, asked at the moment of contact.
Contact Gate makes the allow-or-block decision at the moment of contact. It runs on the same consent record, rule library and append-only log as the other eight modules.
- It starts from the consent record
- The record of what a person was shown and agreed to, tied to one number and one named seller, is the input. That record comes first from text opt-ins captured through Sender Check.
- It adds the checks that change daily
- Do-not-call status, your own suppression list, the recipient's local time and the rules of their state are read at the moment of contact.
- It answers allow or block, with the reason
- The answer comes back to a dialer, a messaging platform or an AI agent before it acts. When an input is missing or out of date, the answer is block.
- It treats an opt-out by what it answered
- What an opt-out covers can depend on whether it answered a marketing message or an informational one. Contact Gate records the message, the scope it worked out and the date the opt-out took effect.
- It writes every decision down
- Each decision goes to the append-only log with its inputs and their dates. The log is the same one Sender Check writes to.
Features
What Contact Gate is made of
Allow or block before each contact
Answers allow or block before a call is dialed or a text is sent, and gives the reason for the answer.
Consent on file
Checks that a consent record exists for this number and this seller, and that the wording the person saw covers this kind of contact.
Do-not-call checks
Checks the number against the national registry data you supply and your own do-not-call list, and records which list version was used.
Recipient-local hours and state rules
Works out the recipient's local time and applies the calling-hour and frequency rules of their state, using the stricter answer when the state is uncertain.
Opt-out handling
Records an opt-out from any channel, works out what it covers from the message it answered, and starts the clock for honoring it.
Block when uncertain
When a required input is missing or stale, the answer is block, with the missing input named.
Tool for AI agents
A check an AI voice or text agent calls before it contacts someone, so the agent gets the same answer a human caller would.
Decision log
Each allow or block is written with its inputs and their dates, so it can be produced later exactly as it was.
On the platform
The steps of the consent record this module runs
All nine steps run in every module, from capturing what a person was shown to producing the record when someone asks for it.
- 2. Bind
- Tie the event to one person, one phone number or account, and one named seller. A consent that cannot be linked to the person who gave it is the kind courts have refused to accept.
- 4. Scope
- Work out what the permission covers. Marketing or informational, which channel, which seller, which product, and for how long.
- 5. Decide
- Answer allow or block at the moment of use, with the reason. When the answer is uncertain the default is block.
- 6. Record
- Write the decision, the inputs and their dates to a log that is appended to and never edited, so it can be produced later exactly as it was.
- 7. Propagate
- Carry an opt-out, a cancellation or a withdrawal to every system that needs to honor it, and record when each one acknowledged it.
What this does not do
Where Contact Gate stops
It does not verify that the person truly consented upstream
If a lead vendor collected the consent, Contact Gate only sees what that vendor passes on. It records what was supplied and flags what is missing.
It does not settle which rule a court applies
Courts disagree on parts of the federal rules, and state laws differ. Contact Gate applies the rule set you and your counsel choose and defaults to the stricter reading.
It does not stop a contact sent around it
A call placed from a system that does not ask Contact Gate first is not checked or logged.
It does not replace counsel
An allow answer means the checks passed on the inputs available. It is a record of diligence and carries no promise that a contact is lawful.
Read next
The guide, the article and the quiz
Reviewed 12 November 2026
Consentra is software. Nothing on this site is legal advice, and using Consentra does not by itself make a business compliant with any law or carrier rule. Whether a rule applies to your business is a question for your counsel.
See the consent record for yourself
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