Marketing email permission and unsubscribe

Commerce keeps a record of permission to send marketing email: who agreed, when, where they agreed and the exact words they saw. It records permission only. Nothing in Commerce sends promotional email, and no page here sends anything. A receipt or an order update is not marketing, so it does not depend on this record and is not stopped by an unsubscribe.

1. At checkout, under the email field, a shopper sees an unticked box that reads Email me news and offers from this shop. I can unsubscribe at any time. The box is disabled until an email address is typed. Buying never ticks it for them, and an address that has only been used to order is not recorded as agreed.
2. On your published shop, the newsletter box asks for an email address and the same kind of unticked box. Pressing the button does not subscribe anyone yet. The shop emails the address a confirmation link, and the person must open it and press Yes, send me email updates. Opening the link alone changes nothing, so mail scanners cannot subscribe anyone. The confirmation email is sent only if email sending is connected on your account. If it is not, the person stays waiting to confirm and is not counted as able to receive email.
3. Whoever has the address can unsubscribe from the link every marketing message is meant to carry. The page opens without signing in, and one button stops marketing email. A second button stops every kind of marketing from your shop. The page gives the same answer whether or not the address was on your list.
4. In Dashboard, Customers, the Marketing email permission block shows four counts: Can email, Waiting to confirm, Unsubscribed and Stopped everything. The counts are about email addresses, not customers. Someone can sign up without ever ordering, and a customer who never ticked the box is in none of them.
5. As the shop owner or an admin, select Download permission records. The CSV lists every event, oldest first: when it was recorded in UTC, the email address, what happened, where it was given, whether the address owner confirmed it, and the exact wording and its version. Staff members cannot download it.

A stop from the unsubscribe page outranks every other permission and stays in force. A later tick at checkout does not reverse it, because the address on an order form is not proof that its owner chose again. Someone who left can come back by signing up on your shop and confirming the emailed link. Events are never edited or deleted, so withdrawals stay on record.