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Public Records Safety
Public Records Safety

County report card · Florida

Manatee County, Florida

ProtectedAudited 2026-08-24

County website Terms of Use prohibits automated access

Population
458,352
Portal
Assessor & Recorder
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 useProhibits automation
  • Bot challengeNone detected
  • Owner notificationAvailable

Portal audited: www.manateepao.gov/, records.manateeclerk.com/OfficialRecords/Search, secure.taxcollector.com/ptaxweb/, www.mymanatee.org/gisportal/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=aed1bbeeb73a4657a8ce925d5c1ed18c

Doing well

  • A Terms of Use that prohibits automated access to records
  • A notification system that alerts residents when their records are accessed

Room to grow

  • Expanding the robots.txt file to disallow automated scrapers

What to ask for

Building on the protections already in place, you might consider a property-owner notification system (like the ones AZ, FL, HI, IL, and UT have implemented) and a formal data-governance policy that addresses commercial data aggregators.

The full playbook is What Counties Can Do.