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Sep
07

Government Friendly Terms of Service

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Terms of service help you get social with customer service.

The use of social media in government to engage citizens and provide services continues to grow rapidly. An essential part of using social media responsibly is to be sure your agency is looking at the legal implications of using each new application, so it’s in compliance with federal and state laws.

Typically, social media applications present  several objectionable clauses in their general terms of service that agencies cannot agree to without violating the law, including:

  • Jurisdiction
  • Indemnity
  • Advertising

Federal-friendly Terms of service (TOS) agreements aim to solve these issues, as well as incorporate additional terms useful to agencies. But you must still work through your agency’s TOS point-of-contact before signing up for any social media product. These POCs work closely with your agency attorneys to be sure the appropriate agreements are in place.

Federal employees can look to GSA and their agency POCs for help navigating these waters.

Currently, there are almost 60 tools with federal friendly TOS agreements including:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter, and
  • YouTube

Recent amendments include Google+, Storify, Stumble Upon and Survey Monkey. Consult the list of free social media tools with federal TOS agreements.

GSA works with service providers to amend their standard TOS for federal users – thus enabling the Federal Government to use these free tools the same way private industry can.  This effort reduces the need for dozens of agencies to negotiate separate TOS agreements and to streamline negotiations with vendors through a single Point-of-Contact (POC).

To use one of these products, or for a refresher on how the TOS process works, visit HowTo.gov to get started.

State and Local Terms of Service The National Association of State Chief Information Officers and the National Association of Attorneys General have collaborated to negotiate terms of service with social media providers on behalf of state governments.

They’ve revised terms with Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.  Facebook and Twitter made changes to their standard terms that apply to both state and local governments:

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9 comments

2 pings

  1. voip phone system says:

    October 9, 2012 at 12:41 am (UTC -5 )

    Great article. I’ll be back for update more information.

  2. John Veris says:

    October 7, 2012 at 9:34 pm (UTC -5 )

    social media is just awesome. Thanks, this article is great

  3. Tom says:

    September 15, 2012 at 7:33 pm (UTC -5 )

    Great article! I love reading about social media. We have used addthis.com as well. Now we use Raven Tools, but it is about $99 a month. It really is crazy how many of these sites there are. I can only imagine you guys have your hands full trying to manage the different TOS for each site… not to mention for each state!

  4. Doug says:

    September 13, 2012 at 12:27 pm (UTC -5 )

    Keep up the good work providing friendly TOS for social Media. I found a page called addthis.com and it has pretty much every social media site around. It is amazing how many of these sites have popped up. And who is using these things? Tweens I guess…

    1. Lisa Nelson says:

      September 13, 2012 at 1:56 pm (UTC -5 )

      We are going to be holding a webinar in December on addthis (who also has a federal TOS agreement).

      I am not sure who uses all these tools! I can’t keep up with them all!

      1. Doug says:

        September 14, 2012 at 9:49 am (UTC -5 )

        Thanks Lisa – I will make sure to check that out!

  5. Danny says:

    September 10, 2012 at 8:53 am (UTC -5 )

    Excellent article!!

  6. Dave says:

    September 10, 2012 at 3:14 am (UTC -5 )

    Its good to know that the National Association of State Chief Information Officers and the National Association of Attorneys General have collaborated to negotiate terms of service with social media providers on behalf of state governments

    1. Lisa Nelson says:

      September 13, 2012 at 1:57 pm (UTC -5 )

      States are really trying to work on developing more TOS but they have a much harder time since they must navigate 50 potentially different legal environments.

  1. Using Google+ in Government » blog.howto.gov says:

    September 28, 2012 at 10:03 am (UTC -5 )

    [...] For more information consult the list of free social media tools with federal TOS agreements and read our September 7 blog post on Government Friendly Terms of Service. [...]

  2. What we’re reading… | Webtools says:

    September 13, 2012 at 3:50 pm (UTC -5 )

    [...] Government Friendly Terms of Service – http://blog.howto.gov/2012/09/07/government-friendly-terms-of-service/ [...]

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