ShadowLock

ShadowLock is a comprehensive shadow AI detection and governance platform specifically designed for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and internal IT teams who need real-time visibility and control over employee usage of artificial intelligence tools. The platform addresses a critical and growing blind spot in organizational security: the unauthorized use of AI applications that can expose sensitive data before it leaves the endpoint. Unlike traditional managed-device controls that focus on sanctioned software, ShadowLock covers the full spectrum of AI risks including browser extensions, desktop AI applications, local large language models like Ollama and LM Studio, and personal account usage of public AI services. The solution operates through three integrated layers: a Windows endpoint agent that deploys silently via existing Remote Monitoring and Management tools, a browser extension that intercepts and classifies risky data pasted into AI sites, and a Microsoft 365 scanner for detecting connected AI applications. These components feed into a multi-tenant dashboard that allows MSPs to audit, block, or govern AI usage across every client from a single pane of glass. ShadowLock is built with privacy as a core design principle, featuring no keystroke logging and zero transmission of actual content, ensuring that organizations can govern AI usage without compromising employee privacy or creating additional data liability.

Endpoint Agent with Silent RMM Deployment

The Windows endpoint agent deploys silently through your existing Remote Monitoring and Management tools, requiring no user interaction or disruption to daily operations. Once installed, the agent continuously monitors for AI activity, scans installed browser extensions for risky permissions, detects local AI applications running on the machine, and locks down the AI features built into Chrome, Edge, Brave, and Firefox browsers. This agent provides the foundational visibility layer that makes all other ShadowLock controls possible.

Browser Enforcement Layer

The browser extension self-configures automatically once the endpoint agent is installed, creating a seamless enforcement mechanism at the point where data meets AI tools. It intercepts pastes, file uploads, and sensitive data typed directly into AI prompts, classifying each interaction against your organizational policies. The extension enforces data-sharing opt-out settings on each AI tool automatically and displays clear, user-facing messages when a policy violation occurs, educating employees while preventing data exfiltration.

Multi-Tenant Governance Dashboard

The central dashboard provides MSPs and IT teams with a single interface to manage AI governance across all client environments. From this dashboard, administrators can view real-time AI usage patterns, audit past activities, block specific AI tools or categories, and generate audit-ready compliance reports. The multi-tenant architecture means you can apply different policies to different clients while maintaining a unified view of risk across your entire managed base, significantly reducing administrative overhead.

Microsoft 365 AI App Detection Scanner

This dedicated scanner connects to each client's Microsoft 365 tenant to detect and catalog all AI applications that have been granted permissions to access organizational data. It identifies third-party AI tools connected through the Microsoft Graph API, including Copilot integrations, AI writing assistants, and other embedded AI features that operate within approved SaaS applications. This closes a critical visibility gap where AI usage occurs inside sanctioned tools but without proper security review or data protection agreements.

Healthcare HIPAA Compliance Enforcement

Healthcare organizations and their MSPs can use ShadowLock to prevent patient health information from being pasted into public AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude without a Business Associate Agreement in place. The platform detects ePHI in real-time, blocks the transmission, and logs the attempted disclosure for compliance reporting. This protects covered entities from HIPAA violations that occur when employees use consumer-grade AI tools to summarize clinical notes, draft patient communications, or analyze medical data, all of which would otherwise create significant regulatory exposure.

Legal and Intellectual Property Protection

Law firms, technology companies, and any organization handling proprietary information can deploy ShadowLock to prevent source code, contracts, trade secrets, and product plans from being submitted to public AI services. The platform intercepts these submissions at the browser level, providing immediate protection regardless of whether the employee is using a personal or corporate account. This use case directly addresses the risk that submitting confidential information to consumer AI tools can weaken or destroy trade secret protections under intellectual property law.

MSP Client Risk Management

Managed Service Providers can deploy ShadowLock across all client environments to establish a defensible security posture against AI-related incidents. When a client experiences a data exposure through an AI tool, the MSP has audit-ready reports showing exactly what was attempted, blocked, and allowed. This documentation protects the MSP from liability claims by demonstrating proactive governance, while also providing the client with clear evidence for regulatory notifications and incident response. The multi-tenant dashboard makes this scalable across dozens or hundreds of client organizations.

Financial Services Regulatory Compliance

Banks, credit unions, and financial advisory firms subject to regulations like GLBA, SOX, or PCI DSS can use ShadowLock to enforce data governance policies around AI usage. The platform prevents customer financial information, account numbers, and transaction data from being processed through unapproved AI vendors that lack proper data protection agreements. Compliance officers gain visibility into which AI tools employees are attempting to use, enabling them to create approved tool lists and data handling procedures that satisfy regulatory requirements for third-party risk management.

Does ShadowLock log keystrokes or capture the content of what employees type?

No. ShadowLock is designed with privacy as a core principle. The platform does not perform keystroke logging and does not transmit the actual content of what employees type, paste, or upload to AI tools. Instead, it classifies the type of data being submitted using local analysis on the endpoint, determining whether it contains sensitive information like PII, ePHI, or credentials without ever sending that content to a server. This approach allows organizations to govern AI usage without creating additional data liability or employee privacy concerns.

How does ShadowLock deploy across multiple client environments?

ShadowLock is built for MSP deployment efficiency. The Windows endpoint agent deploys silently through your existing Remote Monitoring and Management tools using standard deployment scripts, requiring no user interaction or system reboots. Once the agent is installed on an endpoint, the browser extension self-configures automatically without manual intervention. The Microsoft 365 scanner connects to each client tenant using delegated administrator credentials. All clients then appear in the multi-tenant dashboard, where you can apply policies individually or in bulk.

What AI tools and applications does ShadowLock detect and govern?

ShadowLock currently detects and governs over 100 AI tools, services, and desktop applications, and the list continues to grow. This includes public AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini accessed through personal accounts, AI browser extensions like sidebar assistants and email rewriters, desktop AI applications including Claude Desktop, the ChatGPT app, Ollama, and LM Studio, AI coding assistants like GitHub Copilot and Cursor, meeting transcription tools like Otter.ai and Fireflies, and embedded AI features within SaaS applications detected through the Microsoft 365 scanner.

Can ShadowLock block AI usage entirely or only monitor it?

ShadowLock provides flexible controls that allow administrators to choose between monitoring only, blocking specific actions, or applying a combination of both approaches. You can configure policies to block all pastes to unapproved AI sites, allow only read-only access to approved tools, block specific categories of AI applications like coding assistants or transcription tools, or simply monitor and report on all AI usage for audit purposes. The platform also enforces data-sharing opt-out settings on each AI tool automatically, providing granular control that can be customized per client or per user group.