The Office of Personnel Management again updated its terms of service for data extracted from the federal government’s job board, USAJobs, following user community concerns over ambiguity.
The issue began last month, when the human capital agency first updated its terms of service for users of its USAJobs applications programming interface (API) — a tool that provides direct access to the platform’s job postings data.
While the agency told FedScoop at the time that the intention was cracking down on websites that use USAJobs data to mislead job seekers, data policy experts and community members expressed concern that the actual wording was overly restrictive and may have run afoul of federal data law.
Specifically, the original wording included several prohibitions related to the sale or redistribution of data from the website “to third parties as a standalone product or feed” and stated that data was for the explicit use of the requesting individual or organization. “No other use of the data provided is permitted without prior approval, in writing, from OPM USAJOBS,” the policy stated.
That immediately raised questions about reuse for analysis purposes and consistency with a federal data statute, the OPEN Government Data Act, that protects commercial use of data in the public domain.
OPM clarified in its previous comments to FedScoop that informational uses were permitted, but at least one website analyzing the data, FederalHiringData, said it took down information it got from the API until the agency’s actual terms of service reflected the carveouts for research and analysis.
In new updated terms released Friday, the agency enshrined its clarifications into its policy.
The terms now state that information from the API is public data and as such, can be “copied, stored, reformatted, adapted, analyzed, published, redistributed, and used for lawful commercial or noncommercial purposes” without prior approval from OPM.
They also include language protecting analysis, while making it clearer that fraudsters are the target. Under the terms, API users can “modify, summarize, analyze, or combine” the public data, but may not falsely represent the information.
That includes bans on falsely presenting the data as official or unaltered federal information, using a federal seal or logo, falsely stating that the application was sent to or received by USAJobs, or engaging “in phishing, fraud, deceptive collection of applicant information, or other unlawful conduct.”
In response, the user community cheered the update.
Christopher Marcum, a former senior statistician and senior scientist in the White House Office of Management and Budget, said he was “elated to see” the clarification from OPM and said the new terms are “super clear.”
“A lot of the confusion stemmed from the fact that … their initial policy was very unclear about how it could conform with the OPEN Government Data Act,” Marcum said. He added that the informal feedback OPM received made the difference, calling it an example of public comment working.