County report card · Florida
Pinellas County, Florida
County portal uses an access restriction which deters automated access but may be bypassed by determined actors
- Population
- 965,870
- 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 useNot checked
- Bot challengeAccess denied to automated clients
- Owner notificationAvailable
Portal audited: www.pcpao.gov/, officialrecords.mypinellasclerk.org/, pinellas.county-taxes.com/public/search/property_tax, www.pcpao.gov/gis.html?v=5&home=&xmin=-9266463.627029667&ymin=3200127.6071718023&xmax=-9149362.099696936&ymax=3271290.480505205&basemap=BaseMapParcelAerials&sales=&scale=288895.277144&parcel=
Doing well
- A notification system that alerts residents when their records are accessed
- Technical barriers (access_denied) 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.