Calling & AI Voice Compliance Addendum
This Calling & AI Voice Compliance Addendum (the "Addendum") is part of the Terms of Service and the Acceptable Use Policy, and governs your use of the Service to place, answer, record, or automate telephone calls. Where this Addendum and the Terms address the same subject, this Addendum controls for calling activity. Capitalized terms have the meanings given in the Terms.
Why this document exists. Telephone consumer law does not treat "the software vendor" and "the caller" the same way, and it does not treat an AI voice the same way it treats a human one. This Addendum states plainly which obligations are yours, what the platform does and does not do for you, and what you are certifying each time you enable a list for calling.
1. Roles: you are the caller and the seller
1.1 For every campaign and every call, your Agency is the "seller" and the party on whose behalf the call is initiated. You select the recipients, determine the purpose and any offer, supply or approve the configuration and messaging, and direct the platform to initiate or answer the communication. Polca acts solely as your technology provider.
1.2 Engaging Polca does not transfer your obligations. Retaining a vendor to place calls on your behalf does not move consumer-protection obligations to that vendor, and no provision of this Addendum should be read as Polca assuming your compliance duties.
1.3 Polca gives no legal advice and makes no compliance guarantee. The controls described in Section 10 are tools that support a compliance program you own and operate.
2. AI Voice is an artificial voice
2.1 This is the provision most often misunderstood, so it is stated first. Calls placed using Polca's AI appointment-setting assistant use an artificial or prerecorded voice as that term is used under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the rules of the Federal Communications Commission, which has determined that calls using AI-generated voices fall within that category.
2.2 Consequently, where your call is a telemarketing or advertising call to a residential or wireless number, the AI assistant may not be used unless you hold prior express written consent from the called party meeting the requirements of applicable law — a higher standard than the consent sufficient for a manually dialed, live-agent call.
2.3 Consent that was adequate for a human dialer is not automatically adequate for AI Voice. Lead-capture language collected before you evaluated it against this standard, or drafted without reference to automated or artificial-voice calling, will frequently fail to support AI Voice calling even where it remains sufficient for a live agent. You are responsible for making that determination list by list.
2.4 Polca may require disclosure at the outset of AI-assisted calls that the caller is an automated assistant, and may configure the Service to provide it. Where your jurisdiction requires such disclosure, you must not disable or degrade it.
3. Prior express written consent: what it must contain
Where prior express written consent is required, the record you rely on must, at minimum: (a) be a written agreement, which may be electronic, signed by the consumer; (b) identify your Agency by name as the party authorized to call; (c) state clearly that the consumer authorizes calls or texts using an automatic telephone dialing system and/or an artificial or prerecorded voice; (d) include the telephone number to which consent applies; and (e) not be a condition of any purchase. You must be able to produce the disclosure language as displayed, the capture timestamp and associated capture data, and the lead source.
4. AI Voice Consent Certification
4.1 Before any list, segment, or campaign is enabled for AI Voice calling, and again upon any material change to its composition or source, you certify to Polca as follows:
I CERTIFY THAT ALL CONTACTS ENABLED FOR AI VOICE CALLING HAVE PROVIDED PRIOR EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT, AS REQUIRED UNDER THE TELEPHONE CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT AND ITS IMPLEMENTING REGULATIONS, TO RECEIVE TELEMARKETING CALLS USING AN ARTIFICIAL OR PRERECORDED VOICE FROM MY AGENCY SPECIFICALLY; THAT SUCH CONSENT WAS NOT OBTAINED AS A CONDITION OF ANY PURCHASE; THAT IT HAS NOT BEEN REVOKED; AND THAT I CAN PRODUCE THE SUPPORTING RECORDS ON REQUEST.
4.2 Polca may record each certification with the certifying user, timestamp, and the list or campaign it covers, and may retain that record as evidence of the representations made.
4.3 A certification is a representation of fact by your Agency. Polca does not independently verify it, and does not warrant its accuracy.
5. Legacy, imported & acquired lists
5.1 Migrating an existing book onto Polca is the highest-risk moment in an agency's use of the Service, because consent language, lead provenance, and suppression history were captured under systems and standards Polca has no visibility into.
5.2 For any list imported from a prior platform, acquired with a book of business, obtained from a lead vendor or aggregator, or otherwise not captured through your own current intake, you must, before enabling it for calling: (a) determine and document the consent basis actually captured, including the disclosure language as displayed and the named seller; (b) determine whether that basis supports the channel and technology you intend to use, evaluating AI Voice separately under Sections 2 and 3; (c) screen it under Sections 6 and 7; and (d) exclude any portion for which you cannot produce a defensible record.
5.3 An inability to verify consent is a decision, not a gap. Where records cannot be produced, the list must be excluded from automated and artificial-voice calling, or re-permissioned through a fresh, compliant capture.
5.4 Polca may decline to enable, or may suspend, any imported list pending satisfactory evidence under Section 9.
6. Do-Not-Call screening
6.1 Registry screening is your duty. Where your calls require it, you must screen against the National Do Not Call Registry using Registry data obtained or refreshed within the preceding 31 days, and against every applicable state registry, retaining evidence of each screening performed.
6.2 You must maintain your own internal do-not-call list, honor it across all channels and campaigns, and never re-import or re-target a suppressed consumer.
6.3 What the platform does and does not do. The Service automatically enforces opt-outs, do-not-call states, and suppression records held within the platform, at dial time, across the AI assistant and the power dialer. The Service does not scrub your lists against the National Do Not Call Registry, state registries, or third-party litigator or complainant databases on your behalf unless a written order form expressly says otherwise. Do not rely on platform suppression as a substitute for registry screening.
6.4 Certain safe harbors available under federal telemarketing rules are conditioned on maintaining written compliance procedures, personnel training, an internal suppression list, and records evidencing timely registry access. Those are your obligations; a screening record older than the applicable window may forfeit the protection.
7. Reassigned and wrong-party numbers
7.1 Telephone numbers are reassigned to new subscribers, and consent does not travel with a number. Consent you validly obtained may become worthless without any act by you or the consumer.
7.2 Where you rely on consent to call a number — particularly on aged, dormant, reacquired, or imported lists — you are responsible for taking reasonable steps to confirm the number still reaches the consenting party, including use of the FCC Reassigned Numbers Database where the associated safe harbor is relied upon, and retaining the query results.
7.3 On learning that a number has been reassigned or reaches a wrong party, you must suppress it immediately and not re-dial it.
8. Revocation of consent
8.1 A consumer may revoke consent through any reasonable means. You may not designate an exclusive method of revocation, and you may not require a consumer to use a particular script, form, channel, or portal to stop calls.
8.2 Words such as "stop," "quit," "revoke," "opt out," "cancel," "unsubscribe," and "end," and their plain equivalents, revoke consent when a consumer uses them to express a desire not to be contacted further — including spoken on a call, stated to a live agent, left on a recording, or sent by text.
8.3 A revocation must be honored as soon as practicable and in no event more than ten (10) business days after receipt, and applies across channels to the extent required by applicable law.
8.4 You must promptly transmit to Polca every revocation received outside the Service — orally on any call, by callback, through a producer, by text, by email, or through any other reasonable channel — and must ensure connected CRMs, workflows, and re-import processes do not reintroduce a suppressed consumer. Polca cannot suppress what it is never told.
8.5 Polca may treat a statement it detects as a revocation and suppress the number platform-wide, including for manual dialing, without waiting for your instruction. Such suppression is protective and is not a representation that all revocations have been detected.
9. Evidence, audit & campaign holds
Polca may, before or during any campaign, request reasonable evidence of the representations in this Addendum — including lead-source agreements, consent certificates and capture-page records, consent timestamps and associated data, registry-screening and reassigned-number query records, scripts and AI configurations, licensing evidence, and recording disclosures — and may suspend or decline dialing for the affected list or campaign if satisfactory evidence is not provided promptly. Polca's request for, receipt of, or failure to request evidence does not shift responsibility for compliance to Polca.
10. Calling hours, identification & recording
10.1 Calls must observe federal and state permissible calling hours for the consumer's location, together with applicable state holiday and emergency restrictions. Where state law is more restrictive than federal law, the stricter rule governs.
10.2 Caller identification must reflect your Agency's true, registered name. Required identification statements — who is calling, on whose behalf, and a number at which you can be reached — are your responsibility.
10.3 Call recording is enabled by default and consent to record is your responsibility, including in jurisdictions requiring all-party consent. You are responsible for determining where notice or consent is required and for configuring or disclosing accordingly.
11. Dialing mode & abandoned calls
11.1 The Service's power dialer is agent-paced: a call is placed for a live user who is present for it. Predictive, multi-line, and other modes that place more calls than there are available agents are not enabled by default and are made available, if at all, only under written configuration.
11.2 Where any such mode is enabled, federal telemarketing rules impose additional duties — including a maximum abandonment rate of three percent (3%) of live-answered calls measured over a thirty (30) day period, connection to a live representative within two (2) seconds of the consumer's completed greeting, and, for any call not so connected, a recorded message identifying the seller by name and a telephone number and stating the call's telemarketing purpose rather than a silent disconnect. You are responsible for these duties, and for any state definition of automated dialing that is broader than the federal one.
12. State registration, bonding & mini-TCPA statutes
12.1 A substantial number of states require telemarketer or telephone-solicitor registration, licensing, and/or the posting of a surety bond before calls may be placed to their residents, with separate fees and, in some states, separate registry subscriptions. Determining where your Agency must register, and completing and maintaining those registrations, is your obligation. Polca's registrations, where any exist, are for its own operations and do not cover your Agency.
12.2 Several states have enacted their own telephone-solicitation statutes that impose stricter consent standards, define automated dialing more broadly than federal law, restrict calling hours further, maintain their own do-not-call registries, and confer private rights of action with statutory damages. Compliance with federal law alone is not compliance with these statutes.
13. Recordkeeping
You must retain, in complete and retrievable form for at least five (5) years after the applicable communication (or longer where law requires), records evidencing: consent and its disclosure language; lead provenance, including source, named seller, and capture data; registry-screening and reassigned-number queries; certifications made under Section 4; opt-out and revocation activity and the date each was honored; and the identity of the personnel who placed or configured the calls.
14. Indemnification & allocation
Your indemnification obligations under Section 16.1 of the Terms apply in full to claims, investigations, fines, and penalties arising from your lead sources, consent practices, list screening, dialing configuration, and calling conduct, including claims under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule, and state telemarketing, do-not-call, call-recording, and artificial-voice statutes.
15. Changes
Telephone consumer law changes frequently, including by regulatory action and appellate decision, and specific requirements described here may be amended, stayed, or vacated. Polca may update this Addendum prospectively on notice as provided in the Terms. Nothing in this Addendum is a substitute for advice from your own counsel, and you should not rely on it as a statement of current law.