Glossary · Term
The end-to-end record proving that a consumer consented to be contacted, from capture to buyer delivery to storage.
Definition
A consent audit trail is not one system — it is the chain: the consent language shown at capture, the timestamp and IP of submission, the token or certificate produced (TrustedForm, Jornaya), the payload delivered to each buyer, and the retention window each hop holds. In a regulatory action, every link in the chain has to reconcile.
Why it matters
TCPA and equivalent regulatory exposure is measured in per-record penalties. A single unresolvable audit trail across a batch of thousands is not a rounding error. The chain has to be verifiable on demand, not reconstructable after the fact.
How it fails in practice
Each hop retains data on its own schedule. A buyer purges after 90 days, the network retains for 24 months, the source retains for 12. A dispute at month 15 finds the network holds the record but the source-side capture proof is already gone.
Related terms
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