Consent & Privacy Service  ·  View 18 of 22  ·  Operations

Consent Lifecycle

Seven states in a ring, and the closing arrow that most implementations never draw.

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Purpose declared basis + retention Permission asked notice version stored Permission held ledger entry Relied on decision at read time Withdrawn or expired validity period Propagated & verified within the ceiling Evidence retained 7 years Consent lifecycle notice shown decision captured evaluated the subject acts fan-out attested re-ask on new version Consent Lifecycle — The Loop That Has To Close Security / platform Application we own Data store Interface / broker Decision point The closing arrow is the one usually missing: a widened purpose version returns the subject to being asked, rather than inheriting a grant given for something narrower. v 1.0 · owner Security & Identity Architecture

Decisions

  • The closing arrow is a widened purpose version returning the subject to being asked. A grant given for something narrower does not silently cover something broader, and that is enforced by versioning rather than by review.
  • Consent-based permissions expire after a declared validity period and are re-asked, rather than a grant from four years ago being treated as current.
  • Evidence retention is on the ring, not beside it: the lifecycle is not complete when the subject acts, but when the action is provable.

Assumptions

  • Consent validity period declared per purpose; the exercise assumes 24 months for marketing-class purposes and re-asks on expiry.
  • A narrowing purpose change applies immediately to existing permissions and does not re-ask.

Risks

  • Re-asking is unpopular and the pressure to classify a widening change as narrowing will be constant. The widening flag is set in reviewed policy-as-code and approved by two people for that reason.
  • An expiry wave concentrates re-asks and looks to the subject like the banner coming back. Spreading expiry across the cohort is an operational requirement the ring does not show.
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Solution Architecture v1.0 · Amazon Web Services · Security & Identity Architecture · 2026-1018-consent-lifecycle