Email and Consent Management
Audience: User, Org Admin, System Admin Related: Email Integration · Users, Permissions, and Authentication · Support Requests · Regression Testing
Blackcap sends email when a user or administrator performs an action that needs an email, or when a background workflow reaches a point where an email is useful. Blackcap does not currently send its own Product Update or General Marketing campaigns.
In this guide, When sent means the workflow event that causes the email. Unless a row says otherwise, there is no separate time-of-day schedule: the message is attempted as part of, or immediately after, the triggering action.
Email types and when they are sent
| When sent | Typical recipient | Consent category | |
|---|---|---|---|
| User invitation | Immediately after an Org Admin/System Admin creates an invitation; also when a pending invitation is resent | Invited user | Required Service |
| Organization-admin / ownership-transfer invitation | Immediately after an administrator creates or resends the organization-admin or transfer invitation | Invited administrator | Required Service |
| Password reset | Immediately after a valid self-service password-reset request or an administrator sends a reset for a user | Account user | Required Service |
| Recipe PDF email | When a user chooses to email one or more recipe PDFs | Entered recipients | Shared Content |
| Recipe export email | When a user chooses an email delivery option for a recipe export | Entered recipients | Shared Content |
| Recipe-share invitation/link email | When a share is created with email delivery enabled, or when an existing share invitation is resent | Share recipients | Shared Content |
| Meal Plan Review email | When a user sends a Meal Plan Review by email | Entered recipients | Shared Content |
| Support Request | Immediately after the request is submitted: the support destination receives the request and the requester receives a confirmation; the primary Org Admin may also receive the configured confirmation copy | Support team, requester, optionally primary Org Admin | Required Service |
| Support Chat transcript | When the signed-in user chooses to email the current Support Chat transcript | Signed-in user's account email | Required Service |
| Voice-assistant link confirmation | Best-effort in the background immediately after a supported voice-assistant link succeeds; it can also be manually resent from the connection administration page | Linked user and/or configured organization administrators | Required Service |
| Regression completion | Once a regression run reaches a terminal state. For a manual run, the initiator is included along with the primary Org Admin; scheduled/automatic runs use the primary Org Admin. The completion email is idempotent and is not sent at the scheduled start time. | Regression initiator when applicable; primary Org Admin | Required Service |
| Organization closeout backup | Only when an administrator chooses the backup-and-email option while disabling an organization or scheduling organization deletion | Primary Org Admin/contact | Required Service |
A configured SMTP server accepting a message means Blackcap handed the message to that server. Final delivery can still be affected by the recipient's mail provider, spam filtering, mailbox rules, or an invalid destination mailbox.
Required Service vs. Shared Content
Blackcap currently originates two consent-relevant categories:
- Required Service covers account, authentication, support, administration, recovery, and operational messages that are necessary to provide a requested Blackcap service. These messages are not blocked by optional email preferences.
- Shared Content covers content another Blackcap user deliberately sends to a recipient, including recipes, recipe exports, recipe-share invitations, and Meal Plan Review messages. Shared Content is allowed by default until the recipient explicitly opts out.
The centralized Email Preferences panel also shows Product Updates and General Marketing because those preferences apply across Microwave Pie communications. Blackcap does not currently originate campaigns in either category.
What happens before Blackcap sends email
For an online registered installation, Blackcap asks Microwave Pie Consent Management for the recipient's effective email policy before it sends. Blackcap does not maintain a separate consent database.
For Shared Content, the decision is recipient-specific. If several addresses are entered, some recipients can be sent the content while others are suppressed. The share popup identifies blocked recipients so the sender can see which addresses have opted out.
If Consent Management cannot be reached after the short retry policy:
- Required Service email fails open so account recovery and other necessary service workflows are not disabled by a temporary service outage. The message may be sent without a Consent Management-issued preference link.
- Shared Content fails closed because Blackcap cannot authoritatively determine whether that recipient has opted out.
- Future Product Update or General Marketing email also fails closed.
Fully offline/unregistered installations do not have an authoritative online Consent Management decision and therefore do not send optional email categories.
Manage Email Preferences
Signed-in users can manage their communication choices from Account → Email Preferences. The panel is provided by Microwave Pie Consent Management and embedded in the normal Blackcap Account page.
The available choices are:
- Product Updates — opt in/out.
- General Marketing — opt in/out.
- Shared Content — turn off future recipes, meal plans, and similar user-shared email.
- Required Service Communications — shown checked and disabled because these messages remain available when needed to provide the service.
The panel also provides Unsubscribe from all optional emails, which turns off Product Updates, General Marketing, and Shared Content together while leaving Required Service Communications unchanged.
Preference links in email
When Consent Management can provide one, Blackcap email includes a recipient-specific Manage Email Preferences link in the footer. The footer link is designed to remain useful after the email itself is old; it does not directly authenticate a preference change.
The recipient requests a fresh secure email link, then uses that one-time link to enter the preference page. The secure link normally expires after one hour and can be used only once. An expired/used link can offer a replacement without requiring the recipient to type the email address again while the recovery record is still retained.
The secure-link confirmation page also provides a secondary Unsubscribe from all optional emails action. Choosing it consumes the secure link, opts the address out of all optional categories, and shows a confirmation without requiring the full preferences form.
Shared Content opt-out behavior
A recipient who disables Shared Content is not opting out of Required Service communications. Instead, future attempts by another Blackcap user to email that recipient a recipe, recipe export, share invitation, or Meal Plan Review are suppressed.
For multi-recipient shares, Blackcap reports each recipient separately. A blocked recipient is shown as an opted-out result rather than being presented as a successful send. SMTP delivery failures are shown separately from consent suppression.
Sender and SMTP configuration
Blackcap uses the configured organization/platform SMTP settings for its own email. The SMTP transport, sender identity, and feature-specific recipient configuration are maintained through the existing Blackcap configuration areas.
Consent preferences themselves are not stored in the Blackcap database. The Account-page panel, preference links, and consent decisions are provided by Microwave Pie Consent Management.
For technical SMTP resolution, branding, HTML/plain-text rendering, management-service integration, retries, and diagnostics, see Email Integration.