Glossary Terms

unsubscribe

An unsubscribe mechanism is the way a recipient permanently opts out of a sender's commercial email, and it's legally required under every major email regulation including CAN-SPAM, CASL, GDPR, and PECR. The baseline under CAN-SPAM is a clearly visible link that removes someone from the list within 10 business days of clicking. CASL is stricter: opt-outs must be honored within 10 days, the link has to keep working for 60 days after the email goes out, and you can't make someone log in or re-authenticate to use it. Email platforms like Mailchimp and ConvertKit handle all of this automatically, which is why managing unsubscribes by hand is a genuine compliance and deliverability risk.