Section 19 · Safety, Deliverability & Governance

19.4Consent and privacy tracking

Built — needs DMA's data

What DMA asked for · Decision Book p.34

Know why DMA has each contact's details, and respect the privacy and marketing rules that apply.

Why it matters to DMA: A legal requirement: it decides what the reactivation engine may do, contact by contact.

In our words, from DMA's Product Decision Book v3, page 34.

Every contact gets a consent record: the country and region, the legal basis DMA relies on (for example a past customer relationship), where that basis came from and its date, and when it expires.
A consent matrix, a versioned rule set, says per jurisdiction and channel what each basis allows. It is approved like every other rule; the one in the POC is a clearly marked starter set until DMA's counsel approves the real one.
The send governor checks consent at the moment of every send, so an email a person approved still can't go to someone who may not be contacted. Today shows how many contacts the gate currently blocks, and why.
Website chats record the visitor's consent when they leave an email or book, with the page and the notice shown.

It plays on its own while it's on screen; hover or use the controls to pause or step through.

Step 1 of 4

A contact

A former client in Ontario.

The same six stages on every page. Nothing reaches Nutshell except through the write gate.

1Nutshell + chat
Source
Contacts, their history, and consent given in the chat.
2Sync
Copies Nutshell changes into the bridge database
Keeps contacts current.
3Bridge database
A copy of the CRM data, plus what the AI works out
One consent record per contact; the approved matrix.
4AI
Claude models, only through DMA's own gateway
Not needed: rules.
5Write gate
The only way back into Nutshell: checked, approved when needed, sent once
Blocks sends in code; do-not-contact can go to Nutshell under its field rule.
6Nutshell
The system of record
Unchanged unless a person marks do-not-contact.

Drawn from the POC's database catalogue: structure only, no data.

PK primary keyFK reference the database enforces (solid line)ID reference kept by id (dashed line)

Table	What it holds	Columns
ctrl.consent	One consent record per contact: jurisdiction, legal basis, its source and expiry, and the result.	18
ctrl.consent_matrix_rules	The approved rules per jurisdiction and channel.	19

How the tables connect (1)

Column	Points to	Kept by
ctrl.consent_matrix_rules.version	ctrl.consent_matrix_versions	The database (foreign key)

Synthetic demo data: every name, business and number is made up.

1 / 2

What you see

1.On Today

How many contacts the gate blocks right now.

localhost:13301/

What happens in the system

Bridge databasectrl.consent
Consent records evaluated against the active matrix version.

Three contacts through the gate (synthetic example; the real matrix comes from DMA's counsel).

Contact	Basis	Result
Former client, Ontario	Past customer relationship (2023)	Allowed until the basis expires
Lead from a 2019 trade show, Germany	None on record	Blocked: no basis
Chat visitor who booked a call	Asked to be contacted (booking form)	Allowed for the reply

localhost:13301/

1 / 2Today: the consent gate, and how many records it blocks.

1Blocked by the consent gate: how many records, from which countries, and a link to see why.

Dashboard · Today, the consent gate. Captured from the running POC on September 25, 2026; synthetic data.

Opens the exact screen in the running POC, in a new tab.

Open	Where	What to try
Consent rules	DMA AI dashboard	The matrix and its approval status.

Built — needs DMA's data

Built — needs DMA's data. This capability runs in the POC today. It needs DMA's own content or data to go live; no code change is needed for that.