Smart disclosure
Releasing complex information in standardized, machine-readable form so people (and tools) can actually use it to choose well.
What it means
Smart disclosure is the timely release of complex information — about products, prices, services, and a person's own usage — in standardized, machine-readable formats that third-party tools can process into personalized comparisons and recommendations. It responds to the failure of traditional disclosure, where dumping dense terms on consumers (fine print, lengthy contracts) does not improve decisions because no one reads or understands them. By making data structured and portable, it enables choice engines that translate raw information into 'here is the best plan for someone like you,' shifting the cognitive burden from the individual to software. It depends on data access rules and interoperability, and its benefits accrue only if a market of decision tools emerges. It matters because mandated transparency alone rarely changes behavior; smart disclosure is the design that makes information genuinely actionable.
Examples
Requiring mobile carriers to release plan and usage data in a standard format lets a comparison app tell each customer exactly which plan would have been cheapest for their actual calls.
Open banking rules let a budgeting app read your actual transactions, with your consent, and tell you your current account's fees would be lower at a rival — something no printed terms sheet ever managed.
Instead of burying tariffs in dense PDFs, an energy market publishes every plan in one standard format, so a switching site can read your meter data and name the cheapest supplier for your household.
First described in Thaler & Sunstein (2008); U.S. policy (2010s).