Resources
Resources for Protecting County Public Record Systems
A Practical Toolkit for Counties, Vendors, and Abstractors
Public Records Safety provides actionable resources designed to help counties, system vendors, and local abstractors better understand and manage the risks associated with automated data harvesting.
These materials are built to support real-world implementation—not theory. Whether you are managing a county portal, developing records systems, or working directly with public data, these resources are designed to help you take immediate, practical steps toward protecting your infrastructure.
Download
Everything you need to advocate for public records protection in your county. Download, print, and share.
Research Briefing
Comprehensive evidence base on automated data harvesting: threat landscape, who's affected, legislative developments, expert analysis, and the case for county-level action. Fully sourced with academic, industry, and government references.
County Action Guide
Step-by-step playbook organized into three tiers (Do This Week / Do This Quarter / Do This Year). Plain-language instructions for county officials, IT staff, and recorders. Includes sample policy language, contract clauses, and an implementation checklist.
Fact Sheet
One-page summary presenting key statistics, audit findings, and critical insights on automated data harvesting risks, designed in a print-friendly format for meetings, board presentations, stakeholder briefings, and quick reference use.
Why These Resources Matter
County public record systems were never designed for automated, large-scale extraction.
What began as digitization for accessibility has unintentionally created an environment where bots and AI systems can access and extract massive volumes of sensitive data—often without detection, control, or accountability.
This creates a growing gap between:
- Public access requirements
- System capacity and security
- Privacy expectations
- Operational reality
These resources exist to help close that gap.
The Impact on Counties
Without safeguards in place, counties face:
System Performance Issues
- Slower response times for legitimate users
- Increased server strain and outages
- Higher infrastructure costs
Operational Burden
- Increased records requests and appeals
- Staff time diverted to troubleshooting and access issues
- Difficulty distinguishing legitimate users from bots
Security Exposure
- Lack of visibility into who is accessing data
- No enforcement of acceptable use policies
- Vulnerability to coordinated scraping campaigns
The Impact on the Public
Public records contain highly sensitive information, including:
- Property ownership details
- Financial data (mortgages, liens)
- Legal filings
- Signatures and identity-linked records
When aggregated at scale, this data becomes a powerful tool for:
- Fraud
- Identity theft
- Harassment or stalking
- Synthetic identity creation
The issue is no longer theoretical—it is already happening.
Sample robots.txt for County Sites
# Block AI training bots from county property records
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: CCBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: anthropic-ai
Disallow: /
User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /
User-agent: Bytespider
Disallow: /
# Allow legitimate search engines
User-agent: Googlebot
Allow: /
User-agent: Bingbot
Allow: /Sample Technical Resources
Copy-paste resources your county IT team or vendor can implement immediately.
Sample Terms of Use Language
Add to your county website's Terms of Use page:
"Automated access to this website, including but not limited to scraping, crawling, data mining, or bulk downloading of records, is prohibited without prior written authorization from [County Name]. Use of bots, scripts, or automated tools to access, search, or download data from this site constitutes a violation of these Terms of Use and may be subject to legal action. This prohibition does not restrict individual, manual searches by members of the public for legitimate purposes."
What Makes These Resources Different
Most discussions around public records focus on either:
- Open access, or
- Privacy restriction
Public Records Safety focuses on the operational middle ground:
- Maintain public access
- Protect system integrity
- Reduce abuse from automation
- Support real-world county constraints
This is not about shutting systems down—it's about making them sustainable.
Download & Share With County Officials
Public Records Safety has created a printable awareness flyer designed for county clerks, recorders, IT administrators, assessors, and public records departments. This resource explains the growing risks tied to uncontrolled bot scraping, mass data harvesting, privacy exposure, and operational strain on county record systems.
The flyer is designed to help vendors, abstractors, title professionals, and concerned stakeholders start productive conversations with local government offices about responsible public record access and stronger portal protections.
How to Use These Resources
Step 1: Awareness
Understand how automated access is affecting your system.
Step 2: Assessment
Evaluate your current exposure and vulnerabilities.
Step 3: Implementation
Apply basic protections and policy controls.
Step 4: Coordination
Work with vendors, abstractors, and stakeholders.
Step 5: Ongoing Monitoring
Adapt as technology and threats evolve.
Take action for your county
Find out how your county records office stacks up, and what it takes to close the gap. It only takes a few minutes to look up your county and reach out.
Questions? Email info@publicrecordssafety.com