Messaging and Outreach Policy

2.How to stop calls and messages

• Texts and WhatsApp: reply STOP (STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END and QUIT also work). In a conversation started by an outreach campaign, a plain request such as “please stop texting me” works too. You get one confirmation. Reply START to opt back in.
• Email: use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email and confirm. You can also reply and ask to be unsubscribed: your reply reaches the business, which must honour it.
• Calls: when the assistant calls you for a business, tell it you do not want to be contacted, for example “stop calling me” or “take me off your list”. For anything else, ask the business directly or reply STOP to its texts.

Your opt-out takes effect immediately, well within the 10 business days that Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) allows. It applies to that business on every channel: its texts, WhatsApp messages, emails, outreach calls and automated follow-ups. It does not affect other businesses that use JULY Call, because each business keeps its own records. If you later write to the business yourself, it may reply to your message. Message and data rates may apply.

3.Consent

Before contacting anyone through JULY Call, a business needs a lawful basis for that person, that channel and that purpose. Under CASL, commercial texts, WhatsApp messages and emails need the recipient’s express consent, or a kind of implied consent the law recognizes, such as:

• an existing business relationship: a purchase, lease or written contract with the business in the past two years, or an inquiry or application in the past six months;
• an address the person published conspicuously without saying they do not want messages, where the message relates to their business role; or
• an address the person gave the business without saying they do not want messages, where the message relates to their business role.

A request for express consent must say what it is for and who is asking, and must not use a pre-checked box. Some messages, such as a quote the person asked for or the confirmation of a transaction, do not need consent but still need identification and an unsubscribe mechanism. Messages from registered charities whose main purpose is fundraising, and from political parties or candidates whose main purpose is asking for contributions, are excluded from CASL, but calling rules and other laws still apply.

Proof of consent

The business must be able to prove consent: when, how and for what each person agreed. When a caller agrees on a call or by text to hear from the business, JULY Call records that consent with the time and channel and, for calls, links it to the recording; it also records every opt-out and opt-in it receives. The business remains responsible for checking that consent is valid for its purpose, and for recording consent and opt-outs it collects outside JULY Call.

4.AI outreach campaigns

A campaign names a goal, for example booking an appointment or getting an answer. The AI contacts each enrolled person on the campaign’s channels, in new words each time, until the person says yes, no or stop, the deadline passes or the attempts run out. These safeguards are built in:

• Compliance first. A campaign runs only after the business’s administrator confirms its consent basis (express consent, a current or recent client, other implied consent, political or campaign outreach, or a registered charity), gives the business’s mailing address and, for political calls, its CRTC Voter Contact Registry registration. A campaign that places calls needs express consent, or political outreach, unless the administrator confirms that its calls do not sell or promote anything (reminders or service messages to existing clients): JULY Call refuses to launch it otherwise.
• Who is enrolled. When a business chooses people by filter, only those with marketing consent recorded are enrolled; people picked by hand are enrolled on the strength of the administrator’s confirmation, except on a campaign based on express consent, which enrols and contacts only people whose consent is on record; and no one who has opted out is ever enrolled or contacted.
• Identification and opt-out. Texts carry STOP wording, emails an unsubscribe link, and every call opens by saying who is calling, for which business, the business’s mailing address, why, and a number where the business can be reached, followed by the recording notice.
• Hours. Calls go out only on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and on weekends from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; texts only on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and on weekends from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; emails at any time. These hours are the recipient’s local time, worked out from the area code of their phone number (when an area code spans two time zones, the hours must hold in both); when the area code does not tell, the time zone set for the business’s account applies.
• Pace. Each campaign has a maximum number of attempts, a minimum gap between them and a deadline; the last attempt is a polite goodbye; a text or email is held if another automated message reached the person in the last few hours; and the number of outreach calls running at once is capped.
• Stop means stop. “Stop” on any channel ends that person’s outreach in every campaign of that business and revokes their consent on every channel.
• WhatsApp only with an approved sender. Outreach uses WhatsApp only once the business’s WhatsApp sender is approved, and never for a political or campaign workspace: see WhatsApp.

These safeguards help, but they do not make a campaign lawful on their own. The business remains responsible for its list, its consent, its brief and everything the campaign says.

5.Identification

• Texts: the first text of an outreach conversation ends with “- [business]. Reply STOP to opt out.” and later texts with “Reply STOP to opt out.”. The receptionist’s automated texts, such as booking confirmations, appointment reminders, texts after a missed or dropped call and its marketing follow-ups, carry the business’s name and “Reply STOP to opt out.” as well.
• Emails: carry the business’s name, the mailing address it gives us and an unsubscribe link. When a business has given no mailing address, its emails carry none rather than a wrong one.
• Calls: open with the assistant’s name, the business it calls for, that it is a virtual assistant, the business’s mailing address, the reason for the call and the number where the business can be reached (the number the call shows), then the recording notice. A message left on an answering machine ends with the same number and address.

The business must give us accurate identification and contact details (its name, mailing address, and a phone number, email address or website where it can be reached), keep them current, and make sure every message meets the identification rules that apply to it. Under the CRTC’s rules, an automated call must give, at its start, the name of the business it is made for, the purpose of the call, and a mailing address and a local or toll-free number where a representative can be reached. JULY Call asks for the mailing address before any campaign can launch and says it, with the number the call shows, at the start of every outreach call; the business must make sure a person can be reached at that number.

6.When calls and messages are sent

• Outreach calls: on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and on weekends from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m..
• Outreach texts: on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and on weekends from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m..
• Outreach emails: any time.
• Receptionist follow-ups: automated follow-up texts and emails scheduled by the receptionist are sent between 9:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. in the recipient’s local time.
• Replies: answers to someone who has just called, texted or written, such as a booking confirmation or a text after a missed call, are sent right away, at any hour, because they respond to that person.
• The CRTC’s calling hours are measured in the recipient’s local time, and so are JULY Call’s: it works out each person’s time zone from the area code of their phone number, keeps the hours in every zone that area code spans, and uses the time zone set for the business’s account when the area code does not tell (a toll-free or foreign number, or none). A number does not always show where its owner is (a mobile kept after a move, for example), so a business that knows a person is elsewhere must plan for their hours, or not contact them.

7.Calls and the CRTC rules

Outreach calls use an AI voice. Businesses must treat them as calls made with an automatic dialing-announcing device (ADAD) under the CRTC’s Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules, which means that:

• an automated call made to sell or promote something needs the person’s express consent, given before the call: JULY Call launches a campaign with calls only when its consent basis is express consent or political outreach, or when the administrator confirms that its calls do not sell or promote anything;
• calls may be made only on weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and on weekends from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., in the recipient’s local time;
• each call must start by identifying the business and the purpose, with a mailing address and a number where a representative can be reached: JULY Call’s opening says all of these, as described above;
• when someone asks not to be called, the number must go on the business’s internal do-not-call list within the time the rules require and stay there as long as they require (JULY Call records the request immediately);
• calls must never be made to emergency lines or health-care facilities;
• the number displayed must be one the business controls and where it can be reached: JULY Call shows the business’s verified caller ID or its JULY Call number; and
• random or sequential dialing is not allowed: JULY Call calls only the people a business has enrolled.

8.Do-not-call lists

JULY Call does not check numbers against the National Do Not Call List or the US National Do Not Call Registry. A business that makes telemarketing calls must register with the National Do Not Call List operator, subscribe to the list where required, and not call numbers on it unless an exemption applies (for example registered charities, political parties and candidates, newspapers calling about subscriptions, and calls within the time limits of an existing business relationship). Exempt organizations must still keep their own internal do-not-call list and honour every request made to them directly.

9.Political and campaign outreach

• Voter Contact Registry. During a federal election period, political entities and the calling service providers they use must register with the CRTC’s Voter Contact Registry within 48 hours after the first voter contact call, live or automated. A campaign that places calls through JULY Call must give its registration, or confirm that the calls fall outside an election period, before it runs. Provincial, territorial and municipal elections have their own rules, which the campaign must follow.
• Identification. Political calls and messages must say who is calling and on whose behalf, and meet any authorization rules of the election law. Calling hours and the do-not-call rules that apply to political calls still apply.
• No WhatsApp. Meta does not allow political parties, politicians, candidates or political campaigns to use the WhatsApp Business Platform, so JULY Call never offers WhatsApp to a political or campaign workspace.
• Recordings and scripts. The Canada Elections Act requires calling service providers, and the political entities they call for, to keep the scripts and recordings of election calls for one year after the election period. A political or campaign workspace therefore keeps its call recordings for 400 days by default (rather than 90), and its outreach campaigns (the briefs that serve as scripts) and their records while the account is open. If such an account closes, its data is deleted only after that period has passed.
• No misleading voters. JULY Call must never be used to mislead people about when, where or how to vote, to impersonate a candidate, an official or an election authority, or to discourage anyone from voting.

10.WhatsApp

WhatsApp is available to a business once its WhatsApp sender is approved. The business asks for it in its settings, the sender is registered with Meta through our telephony provider, and until it is approved WhatsApp does not appear in that business’s account at all. It is never available to political or campaign workspaces (see Political and campaign outreach). Once a sender is approved, JULY Call and Meta require:

• the person’s opt-in to receive WhatsApp messages from the business, collected before the business messages them and recorded with their consent;
• a message template approved by Meta for any message the business starts, or sends more than 24 hours after the person’s last message (free-form messages only inside those 24 hours);
• compliance with Meta’s WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy and Commerce Policy, including their lists of prohibited goods and services; and
• prompt opt-outs: JULY Call treats STOP on WhatsApp like STOP on a text.

Meta may limit, suspend or ban a business’s WhatsApp sender for low quality or policy breaches; JULY is not responsible for that.

11.Contacting people in the United States

US law applies in addition to Canadian law when a business contacts people there:

• the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA): the FCC treats AI-generated voices as artificial voices, so calls that use them generally need the person’s prior express consent, and prior express written consent for telemarketing; automated texts are subject to similar consent rules;
• the National Do Not Call Registry and the Telemarketing Sales Rule;
• state laws, which can be stricter: some end calling hours at 8:00 p.m., limit how often a person may be called, require registration, or require everyone on a call to agree to it being recorded;
• carrier registration for business texting (A2P 10DLC or toll-free verification); and
• the CAN-SPAM Act for email.

JULY Call’s hours are not built around US state rules. A business that contacts people in the United States must restrict its campaigns accordingly.

12.Records

JULY Call keeps, for each business:

• every outreach touch and reply, with its channel, time and content, on the contact’s timeline;
• every consent, opt-out and opt-in it receives, with the time and channel and, for calls, a link to the recording; and
• each campaign’s compliance confirmation: who confirmed, when, the consent basis and any Voter Contact Registry registration.

Consent and opt-out records are kept as long as needed to honour them while the account is open, and a call recording that captures a person’s spoken consent is kept as proof for as long as that consent stands, and until 3 years after it is withdrawn. Outreach events are kept while the account is active. When an account closes, its owner is told the deletion date, and within 60 days (a political or campaign account: after its 400-day recording period) everything above is deleted, consent and opt-out records included. Businesses can export outreach results from the dashboard, and should export what they need to keep before then.

13.Messages from JULY Call to our customers

Account and service messages we send to business owners and staff (your setup is ready, a change is live, billing and security notices, and the concierge call when your setup is ready) are part of the service. Concierge calls and reminder texts go out only between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. in your business’s time zone. We send marketing about our products only with consent, with our identification and a way to unsubscribe.

14.Enforcement

We may, without notice and without liability, pause or stop a campaign, call or message, block a number, ask for proof of consent, suspend or close an account, and report unlawful activity to carriers, platforms, regulators or law enforcement. A business that breaches this policy is responsible for the consequences and indemnifies us as our Terms of Service provide.

15.Report an unwanted call or message

Reply STOP, use the unsubscribe link or tell the assistant to stop. If that does not resolve it, email support@july.ca with the number that contacted you and the date and time. We will investigate and act.