_posts/2015-05-18-myusa.md
---
title: "Meet MyUSA: Your one account for government"
date: 2015-05-18
layout: post
authors:
- kate
tags:
- security
- myusa
excerpt: "If you’re a small-business owner, a veteran, or simply a person
interested in tracking the status of your tax return, you’ve likely
interacted with multiple government websites, which can require you to fill out a lot of forms and juggle a lot of information. Soon, you’ll be able to use MyUSA — a service that makes government resources easier to access, and government tasks and processes easier to keep track of."
description: "Soon, users accessing U.S. government websites will be able to use MyUSA — a service that makes government resources easier to access, and government tasks and processes easier to keep track of."
image: /assets/blog/myusa/myusa.jpg
hero: false
---
[](https://my.usa.gov/)
Quick! How many times did you visit a government website during the past
year? If you’re like most people, you probably visited a U.S. government
website at least once (though most likely more than once); [some
studies indicate](http://www.pewinternet.org/2010/04/27/government-online/)
that at least 82 percent of of all Internet users have looked for
information or completed a transaction on a government website.
If you’re a small-business owner, a veteran, or simply a person
interested in tracking the status of your tax return, you’ve likely
interacted with *multiple* government websites, in addition to making
repeat visits to those that are most relevant to your interests and
goals. For better or worse, dealing with several government agencies
online can require you to fill out a lot of forms and juggle a lot of
information (which most of us try to avoid).
This is all about to change. Soon, you’ll be able to use MyUSA — a
service that makes government resources easier to access, and government
tasks and processes easier to keep track of.
## What is MyUSA?
MyUSA is an account management service that consolidates your
interactions with government websites. You’ll only need **one** login to
access sites from our partner agencies.
What’s more, you won’t need a new password to log in. MyUSA uses open
authorization (OAuth) to connect you with partner agencies while keeping
your personal information secure — this eliminates the need for a new
password *and* protects your privacy. (If you’d like to read more about
OAuth, [this overview](http://oauth.net/about/) is helpful.)
Once you’ve signed up with MyUSA, you’ll be able to use it to access
partner agencies’ websites more easily. You’ll also be able to use it to
keep track of tasks you need to complete for various agencies, and to
receive notifications about your to-dos — the steps in applying for a
small-business loan, for example.
In short, MyUSA is your one account for government.
## Why should I use it?
The short answer is that using MyUSA will make it easy to sign into and
register with federal websites, manage your interactions with the
federal government, and store ongoing work with federal government
websites for later use.
Here’s a more detailed breakdown of MyUSA’s benefits:
- **We make it easy to log in:** MyUSA uses OAuth, which means no new passwords for you to remember. You’ll be able to log in using Google or your email address — whichever you prefer.
- **We help you find the services and resources you need:** When you complete your MyUSA profile, you help partner agencies find and then surface the resources, services, and benefits that make the most sense for you, based on your individual needs and geographic location.
- **We help keep you on track and store your ongoing work for later use:** Gone are the days of written to-do lists! MyUSA provides customized task lists for each agency you’re interacting with. For example, let’s say you’re applying for small-business financing through Business.usa.gov. MyUSA’s task checklist will list the steps in the application process and help you keep track of steps you haven’t yet completed.
- **We keep you notified:** To stay even more organized, you can choose to receive email notifications about the status of different tasks (like applying for financing). In the future, you’ll be able to receive notifications via SMS and paper mail, too.
## Who is MyUSA for?
MyUSA appeals to a diverse group of users, each of whom seeks different
information from the federal government and therefore visits different
websites. Most people can find value in using MyUSA, but the following
examples provide more detailed information about *how* people might use
it.
First, consider Aileen, who is trying to get her pottery business up and
running. As an aspiring small-business owner, Aileen routinely visits
multiple government websites, including BusinessUSA. Because she visits
so many sites (each of which has different password requirements), she
has trouble remembering the passwords she created. As a result, she
routinely has to create new passwords, which makes the login process
time-consuming and frustrating. By using MyUSA, Aileen can save login
time and frustration.
Unlike Aileen, Charles doesn’t interact with government websites every
day. A veteran who is pursuing his master’s in education, Charles
occasionally uses Benefits.gov to see if he’s eligible for any
research-related grants, but he’s far from a power user. Because he
visits Benefits.gov so infrequently, Charles found that he kept
forgetting his login information, which he then decided to store in a
note on his smartphone. Instead of creating this security risk, Charles
could use MyUSA for secure, passwordless sign on.
The only people who probably won’t find MyUSA useful are those who don’t
visit federal government websites. For the rest of us, though, MyUSA
will offer increased efficiency and security.
## That sounds great! How can I sign up?
Getting started with MyUSA is easy. Visit our website, enter your email
address, and fill in an optional profile — that’s it! Once you create
your account, you’ll be able to interact with our current partners,
including BusinessUSA, USA.gov, and Benefits.gov.
Though we’re currently undergoing site updates, MyUSA should be up and
running within the next few weeks — check out our [Coming Soon
page](https://my.usa.gov/) for more details. If you have additional
questions or want to share your thoughts on how we can make MyUSA even
better, send us an email at myusa@gsa.gov.