POST /ad-sharing/opt-outs and confirming that they were successfully recorded.
What is an opt-out?
An opt-out is a consumer’s request to stop a particular use or sharing of their personal information. For Signal, it means their information should no longer be sent to digital advertising platforms as purchase or account-linking events. A consumer may encounter a link such as “Do not sell or share my personal data” on a brand or retailer’s website. The wording may also be “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information.” These controls let consumers express a choice about the sale or sharing of their information, including sharing for certain targeted advertising uses. For example, California’s consumer privacy guidance explains the right to opt out of sale and sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising. This is different from unsubscribing from marketing emails, disconnecting a retail account, or requesting deletion. Those actions have different purposes and should be handled through their respective workflows.Connect your opt-out process to Signal
Your brand may use a consent management platform (CMP), such as OneTrust or Ketch, to manage cookie consent, data-sharing choices, and consumer privacy preferences through banners and preference centers. You may also collect requests through customer support. Connect that existing process to Subtotal. Recording a preference in a consent manager does not by itself record an opt-out with Subtotal, and blocking browser cookies or advertising tags does not stop Signal’s server-to-server event delivery. Applicable opt-outs must also reachPOST /ad-sharing/opt-outs.
Using a consent manager
Work with the team that manages your CMP to identify which choices cover advertising-platform sharing. Use the provider’s supported integration mechanisms to pass those opt-outs to your backend, then submit the consumer’s email or an owned connection ID to Subtotal. A browser or device identifier alone is not accepted by this endpoint. For example: consumer updates their privacy preferences → consent manager records the choice → your backend submits the opt-out → Subtotal returns204 No Content.
The providers above are examples of consent managers, not preconfigured Subtotal integrations. Map the relevant preferences explicitly; do not assume every cookie preference has the same scope. If a consumer later changes their choice in the CMP, that does not reverse an opt-out already recorded with Subtotal.
Before enabling Signal
- Connect your request workflow. Make sure requests that cover advertising-platform sharing are passed from your consent manager or customer support process to the Subtotal API.
- Record existing opt-outs. Submit applicable opt-outs you already hold before starting event delivery. You can submit an email even if the consumer has not yet linked an account.
- Keep new requests flowing. Submit new opt-outs promptly and handle failures until Subtotal confirms successful recording.
POST /ad-sharing/opt-outs. Once the API returns 204 No Content, Subtotal has recorded the request and subsequent delivery eligibility checks suppress Signal events for the matching identity.
Do not assume that a preference selected on a retailer’s website is automatically communicated to Subtotal. When your brand receives an applicable request through that channel, include it in the same opt-out workflow. Linking a retailer account is not confirmation that Subtotal has received the consumer’s privacy preferences from that retailer.
What Signal stops sending
The opt-out applies to both supported Signal event types: purchases from retailers and marketplaces and account linking. The endpoint records a request to stop sharing; it cannot grant permission to share or reverse a previous opt-out.What an opt-out covers
Opt-outs are matched by email across Subtotal clients. They are not limited to the brand submitting the request or the connection used to identify the consumer. When recording a request, Subtotal also records opt-outs for other connection email addresses on retail accounts currently associated with the submitted address. That expansion uses the associations available at the time of the request. Do not assume it covers every new address a consumer might use in the future. Email matching ignores case and surrounding whitespace. For example,Shopper@Example.com and shopper@example.com identify the same address.
When sharing stops
A successful response means Subtotal has recorded the opt-out. Subsequent delivery eligibility checks suppress events for the matching identity. Submit requests promptly: sharing can continue until the request has been successfully recorded. Recording an opt-out does not retract or delete information already delivered to an advertising platform. Do not treat the response as confirmation that a delivery already in flight has been canceled.Opt-out, disconnection, and deletion
If a consumer’s request includes disconnection or deletion, handle those requests separately. Contact support@subtotal.com if you need help determining the appropriate Subtotal workflow.
Record a request received by your brand
Call the API from your server using API key authentication. Do not expose your API key in a consumer-facing form or browser script. Submit the consumer’s email directly:Request fields
Supply at least one field. If you supply both,
connection_id determines the email used; both fields must still satisfy their length limits.
Responses
Retries and confirmation
Submitting the same request again is safe. A repeated successful submission returns the same204 response as a first submission; it does not disclose whether an opt-out previously existed.
If a request times out or encounters a temporary service failure, retry until you receive confirmation or escalate the failure for investigation. Do not mark the request complete just because it was queued or attempted. Keep your own record of the consumer’s request and the successful API response.
There is no public opt-out status lookup or reversal operation in this API. For help investigating an unsuccessful request, contact support@subtotal.com.