County report card · Minnesota
Cottonwood County, Minnesota
No restrictions on automated access found in robots.txt or Terms of Use
- Population
- 11,338
- 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.txtNot checked
- Terms of useSilent on automation
- Bot challengeNone detected
- Owner notificationUnknown
Portal audited: www.co.cottonwood.mn.us/departments/administrative/assessor/index.php, www.co.cottonwood.mn.us/departments/administrative/recorder/index.php, www.co.cottonwood.mn.us/departments/administrative/assessor/applications_and_forms.php, www.co.cottonwood.mn.us/departments/administrative/assessor/frequently_asked_questions.php, www.co.cottonwood.mn.us/departments/administrative/recorder/frequently_asked_questions.php
Doing well
No protections against automated access were found in this audit.
Room to grow
- 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.