Opt-out

Definition

An opt-out is a person's request to stop receiving certain messages. In the EU and UK it flows from the right to object to direct marketing in Article 21 of the GDPR and from PECR's requirement that every marketing message offer a simple way to refuse further contact. In South Africa, section 69 of POPIA requires an opt-out opportunity in every direct-marketing communication. On WhatsApp an opt-out usually arrives as a reply containing a keyword (STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL) or a quick-reply button; the client may also block the number, which Meta counts against the sender's quality rating. A marketing opt-out does not, on its own, prevent servicing messages about an existing policy.

What you need to know

The hard part for a brokerage is applying the opt-out everywhere, at once. A client who replies STOP to one account handler and receives an offer from another handler a week later is both a compliance breach and a likely block.

Three operating rules solve it. First, the opt-out belongs to the client record, not to a conversation: in ORIS the WhatsApp webhook recognises STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, REMOVE, OPTOUT and CANCEL automatically, adds the number to the opt-out list and excludes it from every campaign. Second, the brokerage separates marketing opt-out from service opt-out: a client who refuses offers should still receive renewal notices and claim updates, unless they ask to stop all WhatsApp contact, in which case the firm falls back to post or email for regulatory notices. Third, every marketing template carries an unsubscribe line, as required by POPIA and PECR and encouraged by Meta's marketing-message guidance.

A high opt-out rate on a campaign is a targeting signal: too broad, too frequent or poorly worded. It is worth reading before the quality rating moves. POPIA and WhatsApp: what a broker may send walks through the South African rules message by message, and the use cases show where the unsubscribe line fits in each journey.

Concrete example

A Gaborone brokerage sends a retirement-annuity campaign to 350 clients. Twelve reply STOP within the hour; their records switch to marketing opt-out and they disappear from the segment. One of them has a motor renewal due the following week and still receives the utility renewal template, because servicing messages are governed separately from the marketing flag.