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Messaging Policy

This policy describes how Papertrail handles consent for personal notes delivered by SMS, MMS, or email. It applies to everyone who receives a message from Papertrail on behalf of one of our users (the "sender"), and to everyone using Papertrail to send notes.

1. What Papertrail is

Papertrail is a one-to-one personal-messaging service. Senders write short, personal notes about people they have an existing personal relationship with (family, romantic partners, close friends), and Papertrail delivers those notes — as designed digital cards — to the recipient by SMS/MMS and/or email, on the sender's schedule. Papertrail does not send marketing, promotional, third-party advertising, or any kind of bulk or campaign messaging.

2. How recipients opt in (consent)

Consent happens by email, before any SMS is ever sent. The flow is:

  1. The sender adds a recipient to their Papertrail account by providing the recipient's name, email address, and (optionally) mobile number. At this step the sender must affirmatively check an unchecked box stating: "I confirm I have a personal relationship with this recipient and that it's appropriate to contact them on behalf of Papertrail. They'll receive a connection request email from Papertrail and must accept before any notes or texts are sent. They can reply STOP to opt out of Papertrail messages at any time." The checkbox is never pre-selected.
  2. Papertrail immediately emails the recipient a Connection Request from noreply@papertrailcards.com. The email identifies the sender by name, explains that Papertrail is a personal-note service, lists both the recipient's email address and (if provided) phone number, and asks the recipient to tap a button labeled "Accept & Connect".
  3. The email contains this exact consent language: "By tapping 'Accept & Connect' below, you consent to receive personal text messages from Papertrail at [phone] and/or emails at [email], sent on behalf of [sender name]. Message frequency depends on [sender]'s activity. Message & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out of Papertrail messages at any time, HELP for help."
  4. Only after the recipient taps "Accept & Connect" does Papertrail mark the relationship as consented and become permitted to deliver notes to that recipient. Until then, no SMS or note content is ever sent — the sender's notes are held in their own private account.

If a recipient never accepts, they never receive any SMS message of any kind from Papertrail. The only message Papertrail ever sends to a non-consented recipient is the single email Connection Request described above (and at most one or two manual re-sends if the sender requests them).

3. What messages we send

The complete universe of messages Papertrail may send is:

  • Connection Request email (before consent) — described above.
  • Personal note (MMS/SMS or email) (after consent) — the sender's written note, optionally as a designed picture card. Every SMS note is signed "— from Papertrail" so the recipient knows the source.
  • Compliance auto-replies (SMS) — automated one-line responses to the keywords STOP, HELP, and START (see below).

We never send marketing, promotions, surveys, product announcements, or messages from anyone other than a sender the recipient has personally consented to receive notes from.

4. Frequency

Message frequency varies entirely based on what the sender writes and schedules. There is no minimum and no maximum. A typical recipient receives between zero and a few personal notes per month from any given sender.

5. Opt-out: STOP

A recipient may opt out of all SMS messages from Papertrail at any time by replying STOP (or STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END, or QUIT) to any Papertrail SMS. Papertrail will:

  • Immediately mark the recipient's number as opted-out;
  • Cancel any queued or scheduled SMS notes for that recipient;
  • Send one final SMS confirming the unsubscribe: "You've been unsubscribed from Papertrail messages. You won't receive any more notes. Reply START to resubscribe at any time."

Recipients may also opt out by emailing hello@papertrailcards.com from any address.

6. HELP

Replying HELP to any Papertrail SMS triggers an automated response: "Papertrail delivers personal notes from people you know. Reply YES to receive a note, STOP to opt out. For support email hello@papertrailcards.com. Msg & data rates may apply."

7. Resubscribing: START

A previously opted-out recipient may resubscribe by replying START (or UNSTOP). Papertrail will reset their consent status and send a confirmation: "You've been resubscribed to Papertrail. The next time someone sends you a note, you'll receive it automatically."

8. Message & data rates

Standard message and data rates may apply per the recipient's mobile carrier. Papertrail does not charge recipients anything.

9. Sender obligations

By using Papertrail to send messages, the sender represents and agrees that:

  • They have a personal, pre-existing relationship with each recipient they add;
  • They have a reasonable, good-faith basis to believe the recipient would welcome a personal note from them;
  • They will not use Papertrail to send unwanted, harassing, threatening, marketing, commercial, or unsolicited content;
  • They will not add a recipient's phone number or email address without that recipient's reasonable expectation of being contacted.

Papertrail reserves the right to suspend any sender who violates these obligations.

10. Audit trail

For every send, Papertrail stores: the sender, the recipient, the channel (SMS, MMS, or email), the consent status at time of send, the scheduled time, the actual sent time, and the carrier delivery status (including Twilio message SID for SMS). This record is used solely for delivery diagnostics and compliance, and is available to the recipient on request via hello@papertrailcards.com.

11. Contact

For any messaging-policy question, opt-out request, complaint, or carrier inquiry, contact us at hello@papertrailcards.com. Mailing address: Papertrail, 11732 Dorothy St, Los Angeles, CA 90049, United States.