County report card · Minnesota
Benton County, Minnesota
County portal uses a JavaScript challenge which deters automated access but may be bypassed by determined actors
- Population
- 41,881
- Portal
- Assessor & Recorder
- Portal vendor
- Schneider Geospatial
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 challengeCloudflare bot detection
- Owner notificationUnknown
Portal audited: beacon.schneidercorp.com/Application.aspx?AppID=386&LayerID=5759&PageTypeID=2&PageID=3098, landshark.co.benton.mn.us/LandShark/#/login, beacon.schneidercorp.com/?site=BentonCountyMN, gis.co.benton.mn.us/BentonCountyGIS.html
Doing well
- Technical barriers (cloudflare) 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.