# Consent and unsubscribes

See how channel consent, topic choices, unsubscribes and suppression affect marketing eligibility.

A contact can be in your audience and still be ineligible for a message. Before each marketing send, Kirora checks channel consent, topic preferences, unsubscribes and suppression. This guide explains how those checks work together.

## Consent, per channel

Each contact has separate consent for **email** and for **push**. Giving one doesn't give the other. A contact needs consent for a channel before they can receive marketing on it.

Consent is recorded when:

- you import contacts and say how they agreed. See [Import contacts](/docs/guides/contacts/import-contacts).
- someone signs up through one of your [signup forms](/docs/guides/forms/create-a-signup-form)
- you edit a contact and tick **This person agreed to receive marketing email** or **...push notifications**
- your app records it through the API

Every grant records how the person agreed: **Opted in** or **Existing customer**. It also records the evidence you gave. You'll find the full record on the contact's **Consent** tab, under **Consent history**, showing what changed, how, by whom and when.

Existing-customer consent for contacts in Canada lapses two years after it was last given. After a new purchase, edit the contact and choose **Restate how they agreed** to renew it.

Transactional messages, such as receipts and password resets, don't need marketing consent.

## Topics: let people opt out of some messages

Without topics, unsubscribing stops all marketing email. Topics let people drop one kind of message, such as promotions, and keep getting another, such as your newsletter.

1. Open **Settings**, then **Topics**.
2. Choose **New topic**.
3. Enter a **Name** (contacts see it on the unsubscribe page) and a **Description**.
4. Choose **Who gets it**:
   - everyone with marketing consent, unless they've left the topic
   - only people who have joined it, through a form, the API or someone in your workspace
5. Choose **Create topic**.

Then pick the topic on a campaign's **Details** step, or on a journey's send step. A contact's topics are listed on their profile.

## Unsubscribes and the preference centre

Every marketing email includes an unsubscribe link and your postal address in the footer. When someone selects the link, they reach a page that names your business. From there they can unsubscribe from all marketing email or, if you use topics, choose which topics to keep. They can also resubscribe there.

Unsubscribe links keep working for old emails. Unsubscribing only affects email. It doesn't remove push consent.

Unsubscribes show in your campaign results and in the contact's consent history.

## Suppression

Suppression blocks email to an address, even if the contact has consent. Admins and the owner manage it under **Settings › Deliverability**, in the **Suppression list**. Each entry has a reason:

| Reason | How it's added | Can you remove it? |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Added by hand** | You suppressed it, from the list or from **Contacts** | Yes |
| **Unsubscribed** | The person unsubscribed | No |
| **Bounced** | The address permanently bounced | No |
| **Marked as spam (marketing)** or **(all email)** | The person reported your email as spam | No |

Bounces, spam complaints and unsubscribes are the recipient's own choice or their mail provider's, so you can't remove them. Hard bounces and spam complaints keep blocking the address even if you delete the contact and add them again. They also apply across every workspace with the same owner. Temporary bounces, such as a full inbox, don't suppress an address.

Hard bounces and spam complaints block transactional email too.

**To suppress contacts by hand**, select them on **Contacts** and choose **Suppress email**. Choose **Undo manual suppression** to lift only the blocks you added.

**Moving from another email tool?** On the **Suppression list**, choose **Import addresses** and paste or upload your old provider's unsubscribes and bounces. Nothing is sent to them.

## Automatic pause

If bounces or spam complaints get too high, Kirora pauses campaign and journey email for your workspace. Transactional email and push keep sending. See [Deliverability basics](/docs/guides/reports/deliverability-basics) for how to avoid a pause and resume sending.

## Open and click tracking

The owner can turn **Track opens** and **Track clicks** on or off under **Settings › Deliverability**. Contacts in the EEA and the UK are never tracked, so their opens and clicks always read zero. That doesn't mean they aren't engaged.

## Frequently asked questions

### Does unsubscribing from email stop push notifications?

No. Unsubscribing only affects email. Push consent stays as it was.

### Can I remove a bounced address from the suppression list?

No. Only addresses you added by hand can be removed. Unsubscribes, hard bounces and spam complaints stay, because they're the recipient's choice or their mail provider's.

### Do receipts and password resets need marketing consent?

No. Transactional messages don't need marketing consent, but hard bounces and spam complaints still block them.

### Why do some contacts show zero opens and clicks?

Contacts in the EEA and the UK are never tracked, and the owner can turn tracking off. Zero doesn't mean they aren't engaged.

## Next steps

- [Import contacts](/docs/guides/contacts/import-contacts) — bring people in with the consent they gave
- [Create a signup form](/docs/guides/forms/create-a-signup-form) — collect consent as people sign up
- [Deliverability basics](/docs/guides/reports/deliverability-basics) — keep bounces and complaints low