AI agents are evading disclosure requirements through minimal compliance tactics; author proposes § symbol as a protocol-level identity primitive to distinguish agents from humans

Nebraska passed the Conversational AI Safety Act (LB 525) in April 2026, requiring AI to disclose itself when a user 'reasonably could believe they are interacting with a human being,' but the law treats identity as a point-in-time problem, allowing industry to optimize away the obligation within 30 days.

Companies are deploying three main evasion patterns: 'Ghost Footer' (disclosure truncated by platform UI), 'Implied Consent Trap' (branded chatbots like 'Alex' argued to require no active disclosure), and 'API Wash' (disclosure buried in B2B service agreements invisible to end-users).

The author proposes the section sign (§, Unicode U+00A7) as an open standard protocol primitive for agent identities (e.g., §agentname vs. @username), paired with an open registry for agent verification, enabling hiring managers, forums, and users to filter or route agent participation without regulatory mandate.