We don't want your data.

Ownership Lens is built so it doesn't need to know anything about you. This page is the full, plain-language explanation of every piece of data the extension touches — what stays local, what goes over the network, and what never exists in the first place.

Effective 20 April 2026

What the extension does on your machine

When you're on a YouTube watch page (youtube.com/watch), a content script runs locally in your browser. It does three things:

1. Reads the channel name and @handle of the video's uploader from the page's DOM.
2. Looks that name/handle up in a database that ships with the extension.
3. If there's a match, renders a small informational banner below the player.

None of those steps send anything about you, the page, the video, or the channel to any server. The lookup is a local dictionary operation.

What we store in your browser

Preference toggle

Whether the banner is enabled. A single boolean in chrome.storage.local.

Remote dataset cache

A cached copy of the public channels.json (see below), plus the timestamp of the most recent successful fetch. Same local storage.

Last fetch error

If a remote refresh fails, the error message is stored so the popup can show it. No URLs or page contents.

Nothing we store contains information about you, your browsing history, the videos you watch, or the channels you've visited.

What the extension sends over the network

Exactly one outbound request, made on a fixed schedule (every 6 hours) by the background service worker:

GET https://channels.ytownerlens.workers.dev/
Accept: application/json

That request fetches the public ownership dataset. It carries no cookies tied to your identity, no custom headers that identify you, and no information about what you're watching. It's the same request every installed extension makes at the same time.

The hosting provider (Cloudflare Workers) may log standard server-side data — IP address, user-agent, timestamp — as part of operating their CDN. That is outside our control and not tied to any account we hold. We do not read, export, or aggregate those logs.

What the extension does not do

• No analytics SDKs. No Google Analytics, no Amplitude, no Mixpanel, no Sentry.
• No tracking pixels. No fingerprinting. No identifiers of any kind are created or transmitted.
• No reading of your browsing history, tabs, cookies, form inputs, downloads, or bookmarks.
• No collection of which YouTube videos or channels you view. The match runs locally; the result is rendered locally; nothing about it is sent anywhere.
• No advertising. The extension displays no ads and sells no data.
• No reselling or sharing of any data. We have no data to sell.

Uninstall feedback

When you remove the extension from Chrome, the browser may open a short feedback form in a new tab. This form is entirely optional — you can close it without answering. If you do answer, the form is a standard Google Form and its responses are governed by Google's privacy policy. The extension has no way to associate form responses with any prior activity because we never had activity to associate them with.

Third-party links

The extension and this site link to a few third parties at your explicit request: Ko-fi for donations, the Chrome Web Store, Google Fonts used only on this website (not inside the extension itself), and the uninstall feedback form above. When you click those links you are subject to their privacy practices, not ours.

Children

Ownership Lens is a general-audience research tool and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone, regardless of age.

Changes to this policy

If this policy materially changes, the effective date at the top will move forward and the new text will be published at this URL before any new behavior rolls out. There is no email list to notify — because, as noted above, we have no email addresses.

Contact

Questions, concerns, or data corrections: use the support page.