County report card · Indiana
Brown County, Indiana
Vendor (Simplifile) policy on automation has not been resolved
- Population
- 15,650
- Portal
- Assessor & Recorder
- Portal vendor
- Simplifile
What the audit checked
Four low-cost protections every online records portal can have. How we rate counties.
- robots.txtYes — permissive
- Terms of useSilent on automation
- Bot challengeNone detected
- Owner notificationUnknown
Portal audited: browncounty-in.gov/Departments/Assessor.aspx, browncounty-in.gov/QuickLinks.aspx?CID=31, brown.in.wthgis.com/, www.invoicecloud.com/portal/(S(4ukjeq5pazer53cmgzh3w1ro))/2/Site.aspx?G=ae6cebce-0a42-4bde-aeb9-61b1c82463b9, www.in.gov/dlgf/understanding-your-tax-bill/assessed-value-search/
Doing well
No protections against automated access were found in this audit.
Room to grow
- Expanding the robots.txt file to disallow automated scrapers
- Updating the Terms of Use to prohibit automated access
What to ask for
Three low-cost protections that residents in other counties have found valuable:
1. Adding robots.txt rules that disallow automated scrapers
2. Including a Terms of Use that prohibits automated access
3. Implementing a notification system that alerts residents when their records are accessed (per the AZ, FL, HI, IL, UT model)
The full playbook is What Counties Can Do.