Last week we discussed the first three FCC rulings from December. This week we examine the final ruling and its industry impact. The FCC ruled that consent for contact via text or phone belongs solely to the consent-receiving party and cannot be resold. This is common-sense regulation that is much needed. 

Imagine Seema aunty from Netflix’s Matchmakers sharing your contact info directly with potential matches instead of presenting you with the options? She’d soon be out of business. Yet many comparison shopping sites do just this—share your data with partners, leading to unsolicited calls and texts. 

The FCC aims to stop this practice. It requires that sellers not conflate interest for consent. Just because I’m interested in a home loan doesn’t mean I’m interested in your loan product. Just because one may be looking for a romantic partner doesn’t mean they’re interested in you. 

According to the FCC, it’s fine for a comparison shopping site to share customer interest, but it is wrong for the site to treat interest as consent and then transfer that consent to other partners.

Like I shared in Sinch’s 2024 trends report, this FCC ruling will improve opt-in consent hygiene. As a welcome side effect, the phone call will get renewed interest, be it via contact center apps or branded calling. But there is also an operational shift toward knowing (and owning) your customer data. 

Improve your opt-in consent hygiene

The FCC mandates that opt-in consents be “clear and conspicuous” and easily understood by a reasonable consumer. This directive may seem vague, but the commission also explicitly states that a hyperlink to a list of interested sellers does not qualify. 

So, if you’re buying leads, stop and ask questions that show the lead generator has done everything they can to capture intent, content, and consent. Understand how much of the consumer’s interest and intent is recorded and if it’s specifically for your product. The FCC, for example, states that consent at a car loan comparison shopping site doesn’t mean the customer has consented to loan consolidation. If the lead seller is offering consent, ask to see proof that the consent applies specifically to you. 

If you’re a business looking to move past buying leads, what follows next is for you. 

Invest in your Customer Data Platform (CDP)

The best consent is the one you obtain yourself, and the best businesses use platforms that make this easy. Whether you’re an SMB or an enterprise, invest in your CDP. A good CDP will not only give you insights into your existing customers but also give you low-friction ways to capture consent using a variety of tools such as click-to-text and tap-to-text.

Becoming a CDP is the best way for a CPaaS to “Yes, and” its way up the value chain. Twilio does it, as do Attentive, Klaviyo, and Sinch. Many CDP-only platforms are also getting into providing communication ability to their data customers. This capability convergence is part of a larger customer demand to unify conversational and transactional, voice and text. 

Investing in a CDP brings you closer to the prospective customer and makes that third-party data into first-, even zero-party information. 

Understand first- and zero-party data

First-party data is collected through customer interactions with your online presence such as website clicks and social media engagements. Zero-party data is when the customer voluntarily shares information with you like sharing contact information to download a report, signing up for coupons, or other ways of explicit opt-in consent.

Investing in a good CDP allows you to own your first-party data and earn your zero-party data. For newer companies, these platforms are long-term investments that take time to show results. Fortunately, the FCC has put a twelve-month delay from the date of filing for the new rules to take effect. If you’re a new business or one that relies heavily on third-party leads, the countdown to sales funnel self-reliance has begun.

Finally

The amount of data each of us leaks on the web is its own northern lights show. Much like the aurora borealis in astronomy, this digital data phenomenon is both permanent and irreversible. However, steadily increasing are consumers’ expectations from platforms, networks, and regulators to better protect their privacy and their data. 

The FCC ruling is part of a larger industry movement toward consumer privacy protection. You see this happening with Apple and its app store opt-in tracking and Google’s third-party cookies change. While we could debate the fairness of these changes, it’s more productive to focus on what is actionable. These initiatives by Apple, Google, and the FCC are incentives for long-term thinking, for fostering enduring customer relationships, and for building sustainable businesses.