County report card · Georgia
Houston County, Georgia
County portal uses an access restriction which deters automated access but may be bypassed by determined actors
- Population
- 174,897
- 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 notificationUnknown
Portal audited: www.qpublic.net/ga/houston/, cotthosting.com/GAHoustonExternal/LandRecords/protected/SrchQuickName.aspx, houstoncountytax.com/taxSearch, wrga.governmentwindow.com/captcha.html?requested_page=%2Ftax.html, www.municipalonlinepayments.com/perryga/tax/search
Doing well
- 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.