> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.spott.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Compliance > See who Spott no longer emails, block an address yourself, review duplicate candidates, and clear out files in bulk, from Tools → Compliance. [Consent management](https://docs.spott.io/docs/settings/gdpr-consent.md) is about the individual record: what a candidate or contact agreed to, and until when. The **Compliance** page under **Tools** is the workspace-wide side of the same job. It has three tabs: * **Suppressions**: every email address Spott will no longer send to, and why. * **Duplicate candidates**: pairs of candidates who look like the same person. * **Files**: the files across your workspace, which you can filter and delete in bulk. If you do not see **Compliance** under **Tools**, it has not been switched on for your workspace yet. Ask your Customer Success contact. ## Suppressions **Tools → Compliance → Suppressions** lists every email address Spott will no longer send to, with the reason and where it came from. ### How an address gets on the list Most of the list fills itself: * **Unsubscribes.** Someone clicks the **Unsubscribe** link in a [marketing](https://docs.spott.io/docs/outreach/marketing.md) email, or in an automated email sent with **Send email from your configured domains**. Both always carry that link. * **Bounces.** An email to the address bounced permanently. * **Spam complaints.** The recipient marked an email as spam. * **Failed checks.** Before a marketing email goes out, Spott checks in the background whether each address is valid. One that fails is recorded as an **Undeliverable address** or a **High-risk address** and is not sent to, which keeps your bounce rate low and protects your sending domain's reputation. An unsubscribe from an address that is not on any record in Spott is not recorded. ### Block an address yourself When someone tells you they never want to hear from you again, by phone or in a reply, add their address by hand rather than hoping everyone remembers. 1. Go to **Tools → Compliance → Suppressions** and click **Add suppression**, top right. 2. Enter the **Email**. One address at a time. 3. Pick the **Reason**: * **Manual (all channels)**, the default here, blocks every email to that address. See [what each reason blocks](#what-each-reason-blocks). * **Manual (marketing)** blocks marketing campaigns only. 4. Save. The address does not have to belong to a record. You can suppress someone before they are ever imported, and they stay blocked when they arrive. You can also add a suppression from a candidate's **Consent** subtab, picking one of that person's own addresses. There the reason starts on **Manual (marketing)**, so switch it to **Manual (all channels)** if the person asked not to be emailed at all. ### What each reason blocks The reason decides how far a suppression reaches: | Reason | What it stops | | - | - | | **Manual (all channels)** | Every email to the address: the ones you write from your own mailbox, [outreach campaign](https://docs.spott.io/docs/outreach/campaigns.md) steps, marketing campaigns, and **Send email from your configured domains** automations | | **Bounces**, **Marked as spam**, **Undeliverable address**, **High-risk address** | The emails you write yourself, outreach campaigns, and marketing campaigns | | **Unsubscribed**, **Unsubscribed (mass mailing)**, **Unsubscribed (automated emails)** | Marketing campaigns and automated emails sent with **Send email from your configured domains**. Not the emails you write yourself, and not outreach campaigns | | **Manual (marketing)** | Marketing campaigns only | So an unsubscribe from your newsletter does not stop a recruiter from replying to that person one-to-one. To stop that too, add a **Manual (all channels)** suppression. Some emails are never blocked, whatever the reason: * **Send email notification from Spott**, the automation action that only emails your own Spott users * [Company Portal](https://docs.spott.io/docs/jobs/company-portal.md) invites and reminders * The email sent when someone books a meeting through your [scheduling link](https://docs.spott.io/docs/calendar/scheduler.md) Suppressions cover **email only**. SMS and WhatsApp messages are never affected. ### What happens when you email a suppressed address Spott does not let the email go out, and there is no option to send it anyway: * **Writing an email**: the address is refused as you add it, with "*address* is suppressed and can't receive emails, so it wasn't added as a recipient." That goes for **To**, **Cc**, **Bcc**, and the attendees of a calendar invite. In the recipient suggestions, the address carries a **Suppressed** tag. * **Bulk email**: suppressed people are skipped, and Spott tells you how many: "*#* people were skipped because their email address is suppressed". * **Scheduled email**: if an address is suppressed after you scheduled the email, the email fails when it is due, rather than going out. * **Outreach campaign**: you can still enrol the person. When their next email step comes up, that step and the rest of their sequence are cancelled, and they show **Recipient is suppressed**. * **Marketing campaign**: the person shows as **Skipped**. ![The Send email window with a suppressed recipient tagged Suppressed and the explanation shown on hover](https://mintcdn.com/spott-docs/8dpXoPoze1NS6VOr/images/settings/suppressed-recipient.webp?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=8dpXoPoze1NS6VOr\&q=85\&s=65d28f8a4ce6ef27fa03861e60813bb7) ### One address, not the whole person A suppression belongs to **one email address**, matched regardless of upper and lower case. The person's other addresses can still be used, and when you email them Spott picks an address that is not suppressed. If someone left their old job and their work address now bounces, their personal address still works. Marketing is stricter: a marketing campaign leaves out the **whole person** if any one of their addresses is suppressed. ### Read the list Each row shows: * **Email** * **Suppressed at**, the date and time, with an **Exempted** badge when an exemption applies * **Reason**, such as **Manual (all channels)** or **Unsubscribed** * **Source**: the colleague who added a manual entry, or the campaign or automation an automatic one came from Use the list to review bounces: for someone who bounced, look for a newer address before you write them off. See [suppressions in marketing](https://docs.spott.io/docs/outreach/marketing.md#suppressions). ### Lift a suppression How you lift a suppression depends on where it came from. * **A manual entry** can be removed: use **Delete** on the row and confirm. * **An unsubscribe, a bounce, or another automatic entry** cannot be deleted. An unsubscribe is a record of what someone asked for, so it stays. Use **Exempt** instead and give a reason, up to 1,000 characters, so the next person can see why you are emailing them again. The suppression stays on the list with an **Exempted** badge. A suppression can be exempted up to **three times**, with one exemption active at a time. To undo one, revoke it from the **Exemption log**, and the suppression applies again. There is no separate permission for any of this: anyone who can open the Compliance page can add, delete, exempt, and revoke. ## Duplicate candidates **Tools → Compliance → Duplicate candidates** lists candidates who look like the same person. Consent and opt-outs are only reliable when each person has one record: an opt-out on one copy does nothing for the other. Review the pairs and merge them, one pair at a time. See [merging duplicates](https://docs.spott.io/docs/candidates/merge-duplicates.md#review-suggested-duplicates). ## Files **Tools → Compliance → Files** brings the files from across your workspace into one table that you can filter. It is the place for a clean-up, such as removing documents you no longer have a reason to keep. To delete files in bulk, tick them and click **Delete** in the bar that appears. To take everything that matches your filters, use select all, which reaches every matching file rather than only the ones on screen. Up to **1,000** hand-picked files, or up to **10,000** with select all, go in one run. Anything over 1,000 is deleted in the background. The **Delete files** dialog asks you to type a phrase such as "delete 12 files" before **Delete** unlocks. > [!WARNING] > > Deleting a file is **permanent**. There is no bin and no way to get it back, so filter > carefully before you select all. You can delete files in bulk from a record as well: the **Files** tab on candidates, contacts, companies, jobs, opportunities, and placements works the same way, for up to 1,000 files. See [the Files tab](https://docs.spott.io/docs/candidates/managing-candidates.md#files). This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.