how are they accessing it?
API? (but this is limited per account and these are services with many subscribers pounding it?)
Are they scraping adwords?
Many if not all of them have you plug in your own developer token. As of November, this is a violation of the Terms of Service. You will also likely run out of quota very quickly, unless you have a very large spend. I've seen some complaints posted online about people running out of quota with these packages.
Some may scrape, which is also a violation of the Terms of Service.
Most if not all of the packages that do "bid to position" or that find competitor's ads scrape in order to find the ads. Google does some checking for scraping, and will temporarily ban your IP address from Google when they detect scraping.
I emailed the maker of one of the most popular of these tools, asking how they access Adwords and if they are in compliance with the Terms of Service.
They sent me a BS reply saying that they were swamped with email, and may or may not be able to get around to a reply...
Why is using your own API token a violation of terms - if you are using a tool to manage your own account
Don't ask me - ask Google!
Those are the terms. They explicitly disallow plugging your own API token into third-party applications.
[google.com...]
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II. AdWords API Use
1) Permission to Use. You may use the AdWords API to access Google only in accordance with the terms and conditions of this AdWords API Agreement. You and your Affiliates must use the same Developer Token, and only one Developer Token, at all times. "Affiliate" of a party means an entity that controls, is controlled by or is under common control with that party. For the purposes of the foregoing "control" means the direct or indirect ownership by the controlling entity of more than 50% of the voting stock of the controlled entity or the right of the controlled entity to appoint more than 50% of the board of directors of the controlled entity.
2) Non-Compliant AdWords API Clients. You shall not use an AdWords API Client that violates this AdWords API Agreement. For example, you may not use your Developer Token with an AdWords API Client developed or hosted by a Third Party (excluding an Internal-Use Only AdWords API Client developed for you).
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They've delayed the start-up of a commercial developer's program several times, after developers complained that the current and proposed rules have made it practically impossible to develop commercial software for Adwords.
Google has said that they are now evaluating the usage cases that they didn't anticipate...
