County report card · Illinois
Champaign County, Illinois
County portal uses an access restriction which deters automated access but may be bypassed by determined actors
- Population
- 212,374
- Portal
- Assessor & Recorder
- Portal vendor
- Fidlar Technologies
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.co.champaign.il.us/propsearch, champaigncountyclerkil.gov/recorder-deeds/search-records, tapestry.fidlar.com, www.co.champaign.il.us/taxlookup, www.maps.ccgisc.org/public/
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.