The Paperwork Reduction Act, which limits the ability of federal agencies to collect information from the public, mostly does not apply to social media, according to an April 7 Office of Management and Budget memo.

Under the PRA, agencies must get OMB permission to distribute a form that requests information of the public and to renew that permission every three years.

However, the act does not define "information" and that allows the government to interact online with the public, the memo states.

"Although certain uses of such media and technologies unquestionably count as information collections, many do not," it adds.

The memo also cautions agencies on relying too much on feedback garnered through public rating of online content. "Because, in general, the results of online rankings, ratings and tagging (e.g., number of votes or top rank) are not statistically generalizable, they should not be used as the basis for policy or planning," the memo states.

The memo specifically states that:

• A general opportunity to post online comments does not count as information gathering.
• Structured surveys with identical and specific questions are subject to the PRA.
• An invitation for unstructured suggestions or comments doesn't need OMB approval so long as the agency does not require members of the public to identify themselves beyond what's necessary to basic self identification, i.e., name and email or mailing address. If an agency asks for information such as age, sex, race/ethnicity, employment or citizenship status, then the PRA kicks in.
• Collections of emails or mobile phone numbers for an agency information subscription service is not controlled by the PRA--unless, again, the agency asks for identifiers beyond what's necessary "to ensure proper transmission of responses."
• Focus groups, whether done in person or online, are subject to the PRA.
• Wikis don't trigger the PRA, unless they're used to collect survey responses.
• Information collected for personalizing federal websites--such as email or geographic location--is free from the PRA so long as the information is restricted to basic self-identification elements.
• Social media tools that allow the public to rate, rank, vote on, flag, tag, label or somehow assess the value of online content is not controlled by the PRA.
• Information necessary to complete a voluntary commercial transaction - such as credit card information - is not covered by the PRA, unless in order to complete the transaction a member of the public must provide information about his or her employment status, age, sex, etc.
• Contests in which members of the public submit an idea or a video, etc., are not subject, unless in order to take part in the contest the public must fill out a survey.

For more:
- read the OMB memo (.pdf)
- click to the Paperwork Reduction Act

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