Global Subscription Check (Identity)

What is global subscription check?

Global subscription check is a feature that skips asking members to opt in to email if we already know that they’re subscribed to the organization’s email list. Global subscription check is supported for the Identity CRM. It is an optional setting that can be used when the organization has connected their ControlShift instance to Identity.

What does global subscription check do?

When a member loads the petition page, if we know who they are (because they’re signed in to ControlShift, recently took action, have a CRM cookie, or recently signed with Facebook), we check their subscription status in the CRM. Part of the process for enabling global subscription check requires the organization to designate a minimum consent level that's required for the user to be considered subscribed.  

If the CRM says the the user is subscribed, we replace the normal email opt-in UI element with a hidden element where the opt-in is set to True, and we set the email opt-in type as configured for global subscription check.

We will also generally hide the email opt-in UI element when the organization has enabled both email confirmation and the optional 'defer opt in to confirmation email' setting.

How does global subscription check work with email confirmation? 

ControlShift offers an organizational feature that requires users to confirm their actions by clicking links in a confirmation email. When email confirmation for actions is enabled, someone signing a petition or RSVPing to an event will usually receive a confirmation email which they must click through in order for their signature or RSVP to be counted and considered complete. (The exception is if we already know their email address is confirmed, e.g. if they’re signed in to a user account with a confirmed email address.)

When email confirmation is enabled, organizations can optionally choose to also defer email opt-in to the confirmation email. When opt-in is not deferred, users taking action will select an email opt-in status when filling out the signature or RSVP form. The confirmation email will then include only one link: the link to confirm their action. The user will be considered subscribed once they confirm their action. If the opt-in UI element is normally displayed on the signature or RSVP form, we'll hide the UI element when we know that the user is subscribed in Identity, as detailed above.

If the defer opt-in to confirmation email option is enabled, we generally skip showing an email opt-in on the signature or RSVP form. Instead, if we don’t have email opt-in information for the signature, we'll include a special content block in the confirmation email, and use the Signature confirmation email with global subscription prompt template instead of Signature confirmation email without global subscription prompt template. For events, we'll send the Attendee confirmation email with the same opt-in options.

The default content for the signature and attendee confirmation emails with global subscription prompts has two links, one that confirms the action and subscribes the user to updates(“I want to participate and be informed”) and on that only confirms the action but does not subscribe the user (“I only want to participate”). When the member clicks one of these links, we'll set the email opt-in (the join_organisation response) accordingly for their signature or RSVP.

For most regular actions, users will receive the email with two confirmation links. This will include users taking action for the first time, recent signers (signers with the recent actions cookie) who are one-click signing another petition, and uncookied users who have taken action with ControlShift in the past. Logged in users who have already confirmed their accounts will not receive the confirmation email – instead, we'll show an email opt-in checkbox on the signature form. If the user has been cookied from Identity, and their subscription in Identity is current, the user will receive the confirmation email without the global subscription prompt.