Guides
WhatsApp requires opt-in before you send anyone a business message, and India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act adds its own consent and erasure obligations on top. In practice the two point the same way: collect consent explicitly, record when and how you got it, make opting out easy, and honour it immediately.
The person must have taken a clear, affirmative action knowing they would receive WhatsApp messages from your business by name. A pre-ticked box is not consent. Neither is a phone number collected for delivery being reused for marketing.
Broadly, four obligations relevant to messaging.
The mechanics are built in rather than left to your discipline.
| Valid | Not valid |
|---|---|
| Unticked checkbox naming WhatsApp and your business | Pre-ticked box |
| Customer messages you first | A number scraped from a directory |
| Customer scans your QR or taps your link | A purchased contact list |
| Written agreement you can evidence | A number given for delivery, reused for marketing |
Transactional messages about a purchase the customer made are generally expected by the customer, but WhatsApp still requires opt-in for business messaging. Collect it at checkout — it costs nothing and removes the ambiguity.
No. It breaches WhatsApp's terms, fails DPDP consent requirements, and reliably gets numbers restricted.
They are flagged immediately and excluded from future marketing across WhatsApp, SMS and email, without anyone having to action it manually.
Connect your number through Meta Embedded Signup, keep ownership of your WhatsApp Business Account, and pay Meta directly for messages — we never add a markup.