Getting and using information
On background
Also: background, backgrounder
Information you can use but not attribute by name, usually under an agreed label like "a senior official".
On background sits between on and off the record. You can use what the source says, but you cloak who they are: "a government source", "a person close to the negotiations". Agree the exact wording first. A separate sense of "backgrounder" is a briefing or a context piece that fills the reader in on how a story got here.