Privacy Is Necessary But Not Sufficient
Privacy law asks what data a system can collect, store, share, and sell. Those questions matter. But a platform can respect narrow privacy rules while still manipulating attention, narrowing choice, hiding ranking logic, or making exit costly.
The next policy frame should be agency.
Agency Has Parts
Agency means people can understand what system they are dealing with. They can see meaningful options. They can change defaults. They can refuse personalization. They can appeal important decisions. They can take their data, identity, reputation, or audience elsewhere.
For children, agency also means adults with responsibility can see and shape the environment before harm appears.
Policy Levers
Useful levers include age-appropriate design duties, transparent recommendation modes, independent audits for high-impact systems, data portability, interoperability, restrictions on addictive design for minors, procurement standards for schools, and labor-transition programs tied to real demand.
The point is not to regulate every line of code. It is to create durable rules around consent, control, accountability, and dependency.
Recommender share of leisure screen time, 1995-2024
Share of leisure screen time attributed to algorithmic recommendation.
Plain English Or It Fails
Policy also has to be legible. If ordinary citizens cannot understand the rule, the rule will be captured by specialists and lobbyists.
Protecting choice means writing technology policy in a language families, workers, small businesses, schools, and local institutions can actually use.