County report card · Michigan
St. Joseph County, Michigan
Vendor (Fidlar Technologies) policy on automation has not been resolved
- Population
- 61,171
- 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 useSilent on automation
- Bot challengeNone detected
- Owner notificationUnknown
Portal audited: stjosephcountymi.gov/government/county-clerk/, stjosephcountymi.gov/government/county-clerk/assumed-name-certificate-co-partnership-dissolution/, stjosephcountymi.gov/government/county-clerk/cemeteries/, stjosephcountymi.gov/government/county-clerk/medical-examiner/, stjosephcountymi.gov/government/county-clerk/election-voting-information/, stjosephcountymi.gov/government/county-clerk/genealogy-research/, stjosephcountymi.gov/government/county-clerk/immigration-naturalization/, stjosephcountymi.gov/government/county-clerk/notary-public/, stjosephcountymi.gov/government/courts-law-enforcement/45th-circuit-court/, stjosephcountymi.gov/government/courts-law-enforcement/county-clerk-45th-circuit-court-division/, stjosephcountymi.gov/government/equalization/township-and-city-assessor-list/, www.stjosephcountymi.org/government/geographic-information-systems-gis/property-records-tax-search, www.stjosephcountymi.org/government/register-of-deeds/search-property-records, app.fetchgis.com/?currentMap=stjo&switchingMaps=false¢erLng=-85.54768407344446¢erLat=41.91453725378832&mapZoom=12&pageSize=letter&pageOrientation=landscape&pageTitle=St.%20Joseph%20GIS&subTitle=&northArrow=1&rptPIN=0&rptLayer=&rptMap=1&rptPic=1&rptTax=1&activeControl=searchControls&activeLayers=undefined&partialLayerGroups=undefined&opacity64=&buff64=undefined&printLegendLayers=, tapestry.fidlar.com, www.stjosephcountymi.org/government/county-treasurer
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.