County report card · New York
Cortland County, New York
County portal uses Cloudflare bot detection which deters automated access but may be bypassed by determined actors
- Population
- 45,945
- 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 challengeCloudflare bot detection
- Owner notificationUnknown
Portal audited: orps1.orpts.ny.gov/cfapps/MuniPro/assessment_roll.cfm, www.searchiqs.com/NYCOR/Login.aspx, www.taxlookup.net/index.aspx?county=cortland, cortland-county-gis-portal-cortlandplanning.hub.arcgis.com/
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.