County report card · New York
Albany County, New York
County portal uses an access restriction which deters automated access but may be bypassed by determined actors
- Population
- 319,964
- 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.txtYes — permissive
- Terms of useNot checked
- Bot challengeAccess denied to automated clients
- Owner notificationUnknown
Portal audited: www.albanycounty.com/departments/management-and-budget/real-property-tax-service-agency, www.searchiqs.com/nyalb/Login.aspx, experience.arcgis.com/experience/8b462d7c4ebb439b96fa3a55cb2a9976/
Doing well
- 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.