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Update your privacy policy for SMS

As part of the registration and approval process for your SMS messaging, carriers require that your Privacy Policy and Terms of Service include specific language that outlines how you collect, use, and store customer information and how you manage consent for SMS messaging.

Update your privacy policy

Before you request a sender phone number, you need to update your privacy policy to include information about how you’ll message your audience and use their phone numbers. You must provide links to your privacy policy and terms and conditions on your public website when you submit a request for a sender number.

You’ll need to include information about:

• Collection of phone numbers: Make a clear statement that you collect phone numbers for the purpose of sending SMS messages.
• Purpose and frequency of messages: Explain how you’ll use the phone numbers you collect—whether you’ll send transactional or marketing messages—and how often your audience can expect them.
• Clear consent language: Explicitly state that users who provide their phone numbers consent to receive messages from your organization.
• Opt-in disclosure and opt-out instructions: Provide straightforward methods for users to opt into, and out of, messaging services—like replying with START or STOP.
• Data usage disclosure and security information: Explain how you use user data, particularly phone numbers, and assure users that you won’t share their data with third parties without their consent.
• Support contact information: Offer a way for users to contact your organization for assistance or inquiries related to your messaging service.

Example language

Here is an example of compliant language for your privacy policy:

Terms and conditions

Like your privacy policy, your terms and conditions (or terms of service—however you refer to them) must include the following items. Your terms and conditions must be publicly accessible, preferably as links from your SMS opt-in form.

• SMS Messaging Terms: A section stating that, by providing your phone number, the user agrees to receive SMS messages from your business.
• Message Frequency: A statement describing how often users should expect to receive messages (like “You may receive up to X messages per month”).
• Opt-Out Instructions: Clear instructions for stopping SMS messages (like “Reply STOP to cancel”).
• Help Instructions: Information on how to get help (like “Reply HELP for help” or an email/phone number).
• Carrier Disclaimer: Standard language stating that message and data rates may apply and that carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.

Your policies must be publicly accessible

Your privacy policy and terms and conditions must be publicly accessible, preferably as links from your SMS opt-in form and entries in your sitemap.

If these pages aren’t publicly accessible, you might not be approved to send SMS messages.