A user's computer system sends a policy controlled response to an information request from a requesting computing system. A user policy is set by the user, and the user policy defines parameters, i.e. rules and values, for use in controlling the response information to be provided in reply to information requests from the requesting computing system. When an information request is received from the requesting computing system, parameters of the user policy are applied to the information request to allocate a response and to set a response level based on the user policy. A response based on the response level is created and sent to the requesting computing system. In one embodiment of the invention a policy engine system in a computing cell phone controls automated responses from the computing cell phone to a requesting computing system. The controlled responses are based on a user policy specified by the user of the computing cell phone. The user policy is stored in a database. An apply policy module applies rules of the user policy to information requests from the requesting computing system. It also filters stored response information to create a filtered response for the requesting computing system based on the rules of the user policy. A delegate response module sends the filtered response along with a use policy to the requesting computing system. The use policy controls use of the information in the filtered response by the requesting computing system.