Regulations mandated by FINRA, SEC, NFA and FCA oblige businesses to record and archive telephone conversations and messages. Financial firms have to monitor phone calls, record SMS messages, archive them and then produce them if requested during investigations. Text messaging compliance policies of businesses are made with these requirements in mind.
While recording telephone conversations and messages, it is important to get the consent of the parties. Some US states need one-party consent, while some others need two-party consent before recording and archiving telephone conversations and messages. It is therefore important to add a disclaimer in your messages that a chat or a message will be recorded so that the receiver is informed of the fact that the messages she sends would be recorded and archived.
It must also be noted that TCPA text messaging compliance regulation requires consent from the other party while you send business communication to customers and prospective customers.
Disclaimer feature in TeleMessage
TeleMessage’s Enterprise Number Archiver and WhatsApp Archiver have the disclaimer feature that enables users to add a disclaimer to their messages. The user can write the message she wants the receiver of the message to know. The disclaimer feature can be used to inform customers that their messages could be recorded, which is mandated by various text messaging compliance regulations. It is an effective way to make sure that you have the informed consent of your customers in capturing and archiving their business communication with you.
The feature can be used to get users’ consent before a business starts sending them promotional messages as mandated by privacy rules of various US states and Federal law. According to TCPA law, individuals can file lawsuits and collect damages from business firms for receiving unsolicited telemarketing calls, promotional messages, faxes, pre-recorded calls or auto-dialed calls. Businesses need to know about TCPA laws regarding texting and consent.
You can also use the feature to inform your contacts about the change in your phone number or if you want to inform your contacts when you have taken a new business phone number, different from your personal number. The disclaimer feature can also be used as a signature in all your business messages that you send to your customers. It could be used much like the signature that you use while sending email messages.
There are business firms that use their privacy rules or terms & conditions as the disclaimer message. That would mean using long passages at the beginning of each message or chat with a user to explain how you would monitor phone calls and record SMS messages of your customers. But a majority of business firms follow the practice of using short messages or short notice as the disclaimer.
Different options available with TeleMessage Disclaimer
The Disclaimer feature of TeleMessage gives different options to the user vis-à-vis its use. You can add your signature at the disclaimer option manually to every message, add it always with every message you send, add the signature only to the first message in a thread or add in daily once in the first message you send to a receiver.
With the manual option, you can decide whether to add the signature or disclaimers to all of your messages or only to the chosen few. The option doesn’t work automatically and you have to manually add it every time you want to use it.
The ‘Always’ option automatically adds your signature or disclaimer to all your messages. Once you opt for it, you don’t have to worry about manually adding it to your messages. If you prefer to have the signature or disclaimer to all your messages, this is the option to choose.
Using the “First message in a thread” option is about adding your signature or disclaimer to only the first message in a thread of messages to a receiver. While the signature would be appended to the first message in a thread of messages, it wouldn’t be added to other subsequent messages. That would mean that only the first message will have the disclaimer added to it and the disclaimer will not be added in the other messages in that thread.
The fourth option is “Daily” which means, that your signature will be added daily once with your message with a particular receiver. None of the subsequent messages, even in a separate thread on that day, would have the signature or disclaimer added to it.
The disclaimer feature in the Enterprise Number Archiver and WhatsApp Archiver of TeleMessage is a great feature to have for complying with text messaging compliance regulations.
About TeleMessage
TeleMessage captures and retains mobile content, including mobile SMS messages, voice calls, and WeChat conversations from corporate or BYOD mobile phones to ensure compliance with various data protection regulations. The messages are securely and reliably retained within TeleMessage servers or forwarded to your choice archiving data storage vendor.
Our mobile archiving products securely record content from mobile carriers and mobile devices for various ownership models (BYOD, CYOD, and employer-issued). With our multiple archiving solutions, you can always find the right tools or blend for your requirements:
TeleMessage offers cross-carrier and international mobile text & calls archiving for corporate and BYOD phones. Visit our website at www.telemessage.com to learn more about our mobile archiving products.
