Product: OpenScout Browser Extension
Effective Date: June 22, 2026
OpenScout is a free, open-source browser extension designed to help users find lower-cost alternatives to the retail products they are viewing.
Our privacy philosophy is strictly data-minimalist: we do not know who you are, we do not monitor your general web browsing, and the extension remains entirely dormant until you explicitly interact with it.
To protect your privacy, OpenScout utilizes Manifest V3 "limited host permissions." The extension is hard-coded to operate exclusively on a fixed list of approximately 170 supported retail websites (such as Amazon, Target, Nike, and Best Buy).
The extension cannot execute, load into the background, or read the contents of any web page outside of this verified list.
OpenScout collects zero data in the background.
Data collection is triggered only when you are on a supported retailer's product page and explicitly click the "Scout Cheaper Products" button. Upon that click, the extension reads the active page and transmits the following "Website Content" to our API to find price matches:
amazon.com/dp/123456)og:image)Because our service is solely concerned with inventory, we have no interest in the individual. OpenScout does not collect, access, or store:
OpenScout contains zero third-party analytics trackers, advertising SDKs, or affiliate-link injection scripts.
The product data gathered upon your click is used for one singular purpose: to return cheaper alternative options to your browser.
To comply explicitly with the Chrome Web Store and Mozilla Add-on Developer Program Policies, we declare the following limited uses:
To prevent the extension from nagging you with redundant popups after you have successfully clicked a "cheaper option" link, OpenScout utilizes your browser’s native chrome.storage.local API.
Anonymized product lookup requests (including the product page URL) sent to our backend API are stored in temporary system logs for a maximum of 14 days strictly for the purpose of monitoring API uptime, fixing broken retail parsers, and preventing server abuse. These logs are entirely decoupled from individual users, contain no user IP addresses or identifying metadata, and are wiped automatically upon expiration.
You do not have to take our word for any of the promises made in this document. Because OpenScout is fully open source, any user, developer, or security researcher can audit our Manifest V3 code, inspect our network payloads, and verify our local storage handling directly.
The complete codebase can be inspected at: https://github.com/pranavjaybusiness/OpenScout
OpenScout is not directed at, nor intended for, children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect any data from children. If we discover that we have inadvertently collected data originating from a user under 13 years of age, we will take immediate steps to delete it.
We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect updates to the extension's parsing logic or changes in browser web store regulations. When we make material updates, we will revise the "Effective Date" at the top of this document and post a notification in the release notes of our GitHub repository.
If you have questions regarding this policy, our Web Store data disclosures, or wish to inspect the open-source architecture, please contact us at:
Email: pranavjaybusiness@gmail.com
Project Issues: github.com/pranavjaybusiness/OpenScout/issues