Effective date: September 6, 2026
Bid Lens is a Chrome extension by Programmatic Soup that helps users inspect programmatic advertising and CPM signals visible on the active web page.
Bid Lens distinguishes between rendered Prebid.js winners, highest visible bids, general bid responses, Google Ad Manager price buckets and lower-confidence advertising request signals. It does not invent CPM estimates when pricing information is not exposed.
Data processed locally
Bid Lens may process the following information within your browser:
- The URL, hostname and title of the active page
- Advertising placements and their identifiers or dimensions
- Prebid.js bid information exposed by the page, including CPM values, bidder names, currencies, placement identifiers and bid status
- Whether an exposed bid is identified as net or gross revenue
- Google Publisher Tag slot information and header-bidding price-bucket targeting
- Deal identifiers when they are exposed in advertising targeting data
- Recognised advertising technologies detected on the page
- Technical URLs for advertising scripts, images, frames and resources already loaded by the page
Bid Lens uses this information only to generate the CPM evidence and advertising-technology analysis displayed in the extension.
Bid Lens does not intentionally read passwords, cookies, authentication credentials, payment details, form entries, personal communications or the contents of your general browsing history.
Page access
Bid Lens uses Chrome’s activeTab and scripting permissions. The activeTab permission provides temporary access to the page selected by the user. The scripting permission allows Bid Lens to inspect advertising information exposed within that page.
Bid Lens runs when the user opens the extension on an HTTP or HTTPS page or selects the refresh control within the extension. It may inspect accessible frames belonging to the active page so that advertising placements embedded within those frames can be included in the analysis.
The extension does not request permanent access to every website and does not continuously monitor browsing activity in the background. It does not analyse pages while the extension is not being used.
Network activity
Bid Lens does not send analysis results, page information or browsing data to Programmatic Soup or to a developer-operated analysis server.
The extension does not make additional requests to advertising platforms as part of its analysis. It may inspect limited technical information about advertising resources and requests that the active page has already loaded. The page and its advertising providers may continue to make their normal network requests independently of Bid Lens.
Data storage and retention
Bid Lens does not require an account and does not store browsing history or analysis results using extension storage. Analysis information is held temporarily while the extension popup is open and is discarded when it is no longer needed by the popup.
If the user selects Copy result, Bid Lens places the displayed analysis on the user’s clipboard. Clipboard contents are then controlled by the user’s browser and operating system. Bid Lens does not transmit the copied result to Programmatic Soup.
Because Programmatic Soup does not receive or retain Bid Lens analysis data, there is no server-held Bid Lens analysis history for users to access, amend or delete.
Remote code
Bid Lens does not load developer-hosted remote code. Its scripts, styles, HTML and other executable resources are packaged with the extension.
Data sharing
Programmatic Soup does not receive, sell, rent or share information processed through Bid Lens. It does not use this information for personalised advertising, retargeting, profiling, creditworthiness, lending or unrelated market research.
Because analysis remains within the user’s browser, Programmatic Soup personnel do not have access to the pages or CPM signals inspected by the extension.
Important limitations
Bid Lens can report only the programmatic advertising evidence exposed to the current browser session. Results may vary according to the page, location, consent state, advertising configuration, available demand and whether an auction occurs in the browser or on a server.
Server-side auctions, encrypted targeting, direct advertising demand, publisher adjustments, platform fees and final invoiced prices may not be visible to Bid Lens. A displayed bid or price bucket is therefore not necessarily proof of the final amount paid for an impression.
Chrome Web Store User Data Policy
The use of information received from Chrome and websites by Bid Lens will adhere to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy , including the Limited Use requirements.
Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy if Bid Lens’s features, permissions, data handling or storage practices change. The current version and its effective date will be published on this page.
Contact
For privacy questions or support, contact: