Terms of Use
The following terms govern the use of Challenge.gov. They include any applicable laws, regulations or policies incorporated by reference. Challenge.gov reserves the right to modify these terms at any time, and changes are effective immediately upon posting. By using this website, users agree to all of the terms specified herein. Failure to fully comply with the Terms of Use or any related laws, rules and regulations may result in denial of use or access to Challenge.gov.
Purpose
Challenge.gov is a federal program maintained by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). The site is intended for use by federal agencies to launch and manage open innovation competitions in which the public can participate. This platform and its resources allow for broad promotion and access to all listed federally-sponsored competitions, including challenges, ideation, prizes and other crowdsourcing competitions.
General Conditions for Use
The use of Challenge.gov is subject to the federal government and GSA's web use guidelines. Users should treat this site as they would any government-owned and -operated website.
Members of the public must register to use Challenge.gov to enter competitions, manage their accounts and profiles, and receive award notifications. Only a username and valid email are required to register. All users must use two forms of authentication (e.g., email address and text/SMS token) to verify their credentials and access their accounts.
Submission of material to Challenge.gov is completely voluntary and constitutes the submitter's guarantee and warranty that the material:
- Is original to the submitter
- Does not violate the rights of any third party or any local, state, or federal law, including the right of publicity, right of privacy, or any other proprietary right
- Is correct and/or accurate to the best of the submitter's knowledge or ability to make it so
Agency-sponsored competitions may impose additional requirements. Participants should carefully review challenge requirements on a case-by-case basis.
GSA neither guarantees nor warrants that information posted on Challenge.gov by agency challenge managers or other site users is correct, and disclaims any liability for any loss or damage resulting from reliance on any such information.
Links to websites not maintained by GSA are provided solely for the information and convenience of users, and do not constitute either a warranty of the accuracy of the information on any other website or an endorsement of any other website, commercial venture, or product.
GSA is not directly associated with and cannot assume liability for any private enterprise or the acts or omissions of its employees or others except to the extent provided by the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C. § § 1346(b)(1), 1402(b), 2401(b), 2671-2680.
Site and Program Manager Responsibilities
Agency challenge administrators are responsible for obtaining proper agency approval for all challenge content, rules, funding, and the legal authority under which the competition will be administered.
Challenge managers must coordinate with the Challenge.gov team (team@challenge.gov) to gain access to the site, and may consult with the team for additional program design, training, and implementation prior to launching. In general, agencies are advised to allow for six-12 months of lead time to plan and structure challenges internally as well as to market competitions prior to launch. Managers are also responsible for implementing these terms of use and sharing them with their team members.
Remember that official online activities are subject to the ethics regulations of each agency as well as other federal and agency laws, policies, and regulations.
Member Permissions and Passwords
All agency challenge managers must access Challenge.gov with a verifiable dot-gov or dot-mil email address using OMB MAX with two-factor authentication enabled. (For more information on creating an OMB MAX account, visit MAX.gov.)
Site administrators will remove access to the back-end and any system information when employees are terminated or no longer need to have access to the site.
Users should never never share passwords, not even with the site administrators. Challenge.gov will never ask a member for his or her password.
Identification of Participants
Site visitors who are not registered/authorized users can only access Challenge.gov pages that do not require authorized access. Authorized access and credentials to the site should be protected as they would for any secured site. Attempts to access the site are reviewed, recorded and logged, including all activity once access has been granted.
Terms of Use Violation
If an agency or representative violates the terms of use, Challenge.gov access and/or use privileges may be revoked or suspended. Any hosted competitions may be shut down or removed.
Applicable Law
The use of the website and any of the applications or programs offered through Challenge.gov and the interpretation of these terms of use shall be governed by and enforced in accordance with applicable federal law.
