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Even in the digital age, we must remember that not everyone has access to the Internet. But they should still have access to government information. As part of USAGov’s effort to do just that, we produce the Consumer Action Handbook (CAH) and the Guía del Consumidor in Spanish. This publication empowers people to make informed purchases, avoid fraud, and exercise their consumer rights. More than a textbook, the CAH is actionable. We do the legwork, aggregating the resources from across government and the private sector.  

Last week, we shared what people think about before deciding to share personal information with the government. Today we end our series with a look at what we’ll focus on in the next stage of research. If you’d like to read the complete series, start here.

Yesterday, we shared our Snapchat account with the public. After weeks of testing the tool to iron out kinks and determine how we’d make content accessible, we were excited to go public when the official government-friendly terms of service were signed.

So now you may be asking, why is the U.S. government using Snapchat and what will it be sharing?

Here are our top three reasons for using Snapchat.

Last week, we detailed when people decide to trust the federal government and how they view the federal government vs. private companies. Today, we’ll share what people think about before deciding to share personal information with the government. If you’d like to read the complete series, start here.

One of the biggest things we take into account whenever we consider launching on a new social platform is how we can make the information we share through that tool as accessible as possible.

In its current form, Snapchat isn’t a highly accessible platform. This isn’t a problem that’s unique to Snapchat. Many emerging technologies are not up to government accessibility standards, which poses a challenge for the innovative agencies that want to adopt them.