Vibes Connect Compliance Policy

Brand Vetting

It is expected that Connect customers of Vibes will conduct brand vetting prior to submitting any unknown brands for provisioning or migration. This step is essential to keep the mobile space safe from bad actors who may impersonate good brands in order to obtain a code and send malicious content. It is our collective responsibility to keep the industry safe, so it's very important to ensure that any unknown brands are being thoroughly vetted and that you have a high level of confidence that their traffic can be trusted.

Certain brands and content types are frequently rejected by one or more carriers due to their high risk for malicious behavior. A non-comprehensive list of high risk content provider categories includes: indirect lenders, indirect insurance providers, lead gen marketers, informational blogs/resources, job boards, and generic giveaways or sweepstakes.

Please keep in mind, it's up to the carriers discretion to determine what brands are allowed to run content on their network.

Provisioning

Most carriers follow the CTIA Shortcode Monitoring Handbook & CTIA Messaging Principles & Best Practices, which sets expectations for how SMS programs should function. However, some carriers also enforce additional requirements that may or may not be published and apply to programs running on their network.

When provisioning or migrating a code, each carrier independently reviews and approves the program details. If the program does not meet the requirements of the carrier, it will not be approved to launch on their network. Therefore, the carriers' feedback can vary and approval on one carrier does not guarantee approval on all carriers. So it's very important that we are are submitting and running programs that meet both the CTIA and carrier requirements.

If we are intentionally submitting a program that does not meet the carriers' normal compliance requirements, we must ask for an exemption which will require special carrier approval and may take an additional 1-3 weeks in campaign review. In order to request an exemption on T-Mobile, we must submit T-Mobile's Special Business Review form, which can be found here.

In Market Program Compliance

It is the content provider's responsibility to ensure their launched program reflects the carrier approved content and use case, is obtaining the appropriate consent, and is in compliance with carrier and CTIA requirements. However, Vibes may do an in depth review of any programs or codes that appear to be acting in a malicious or non-compliant way. For example, programs that obtain a high opt-out rate, a high number of unsolicited message complaints, are sending prohibited content, or suspicious links. Vibes may also conduct an in depth review of a code's traffic if a carrier or the CTIA issues a Unsolicited Message Audit, or other Sev 0 violation.

If a code participates in malicious behavior or is suspected of unsolicited messaging, a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) may be required by Vibes, Aegis, and/or the carriers.

Compliance Violations

Aegis issues in market audits on behalf of the CTIA and carriers for non-compliant mobile programs. Aegis also may issue audits if a code does not have the correct and vetted partner on file in the shortcode registry, the code receives a high percentage of unsolicited message complaints, or is suspected of sending fraudulent or misleading messages.

Live codes that generate a high number of unsolicited message complaints, are caught sending unapproved traffic or prohibited content, generate an abnormally high number of opt-outs, or take part in malicious behavior may have their traffic terminated. If Vibes receives multiple unsolicited message complaint notifications from the CTIA and/or carriers for a code or Agent, that indicates an issue with the method of opt-in consent for a program and will result in the code's traffic being terminated. That brand will also be unable to lease a replacement code. So it's very important that any unsolicited message complaint audits are thoroughly investigated and immediately addressed to prevent additional violations.

Additionally, if a code receives an audit for a compliance violation and it is not resolved by the auditor's deadline, a code may be suspended and/or deprovisioned on one or more carriers. For that reason, we ask that you please address any open audits in a timely manor and if the brand is unable to resolve the violation by the deadline, that you please notify Vibes with a date when the violation will be corrected. Vibes can then request a new retest date for the audit, so long as it's within reason.

If you have any questions on Vibes compliance policy, please reach out to your Vibes Account Manager.