County report card · Alabama
Bullock County, Alabama
County portal uses Cloudflare bot detection which deters automated access but may be bypassed by determined actors; its robots.txt also disallows automated access to 3 paths (/page.cfm, /cf_calendar/printpdf.cfm, /fs/)
- Population
- 9,901
- Portal
- Assessor
- Portal vendor
- Not identified
What the audit checked
Four low-cost protections every online records portal can have. How we rate counties.
- robots.txtYes — permissive
- Terms of useNot checked
- Bot challengeCloudflare bot detection
- Owner notificationUnknown
Portal audited: www.bullockal.com/probate-office/, www.bullockal.com/revenue-commissioner/, www.alabamagis.com/Bullock/Frameset.cfm, www.bullockco.org
Doing well
- Technical barriers (cloudflare) that deter casual bulk access
Room to grow
- Expanding the robots.txt file to disallow automated scrapers
What to ask for
Three low-cost steps that have worked in other counties to close gaps like this one:
1. Adding clear robots.txt rules that disallow automated scrapers
2. Updating the Terms of Use to prohibit automated access
3. Implementing a notification system that alerts residents when their records are accessed
The full playbook is What Counties Can Do.