ShadowLock

ShadowLock is a specialized shadow AI detection and governance platform designed to give Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and internal IT teams comprehensive visibility and control over how employees use artificial intelligence tools across their organizations. As the use of unapproved AI tools, often referred to as shadow AI, continues to escalate rapidly, organizations face significant legal, compliance, and data security risks. ShadowLock addresses this critical blind spot by monitoring and managing AI activity that traditional endpoint controls frequently miss, including browser extensions, desktop AI applications, local large language models like Ollama and LM Studio, and personal accounts on public AI platforms. The platform operates through a three-layer architecture that includes a Windows endpoint agent, a browser enforcement extension, and a Microsoft 365 AI app detection scanner, all managed from a single multi-tenant dashboard. Built specifically for MSPs to govern AI usage across every client from one centralized interface, ShadowLock is private by design, featuring no keystroke logging and zero transmission of actual content. The platform empowers organizations to detect risky AI interactions, enforce data protection policies, and produce audit-ready compliance reports without requiring dedicated security engineering resources or complex enterprise deployments.

Multi-Layered AI Detection and Governance

ShadowLock provides comprehensive coverage across the entire AI surface area through three integrated layers of protection. The endpoint agent deploys silently to Windows machines via existing RMM tools, monitoring all AI activity, scanning installed browser extensions, detecting local AI applications, and locking down AI features built into Chrome, Edge, Brave, and Firefox. The browser enforcement layer self-configures upon agent installation, intercepting pastes, file uploads, and sensitive data typed directly into prompts, while enforcing data-sharing opt-out settings on each AI tool. The Microsoft 365 scanner connects to each client tenant to detect which AI apps are authorized and in active use, providing complete visibility into cloud-based AI tool adoption.

Real-Time Risk Classification and Blocking

The platform uses intelligent classification to identify and flag risky interactions with AI tools as they occur, before sensitive data leaves the endpoint. When an employee attempts to paste customer records, credentials, confidential documents, or protected health information into an AI chatbot or extension, ShadowLock intercepts the action in real time. Administrators can configure granular policies to either block the action entirely, warn the user with educational messaging, or allow the action with an audit trail. This proactive approach prevents data exposure incidents rather than simply detecting them after the fact, significantly reducing organizational liability.

Multi-Tenant MSP Dashboard

Built specifically for Managed Service Providers, ShadowLock offers a centralized multi-tenant dashboard that allows MSPs to govern AI usage across every client from a single interface. The dashboard provides real-time visibility into AI tool adoption, risky behavior patterns, and policy enforcement status for each client organization. Administrators can audit or block specific controls, review detailed activity logs, and generate audit-ready compliance reports tailored to regulatory frameworks such as HIPAA, GDPR, and CCPA. This unified management approach eliminates the need to deploy and maintain separate solutions for each client, streamlining operations and reducing overhead for MSPs.

Privacy-First Architecture

ShadowLock is designed with privacy as a core principle, ensuring that organizations can monitor AI usage without compromising employee privacy or creating additional data security risks. The platform does not perform keystroke logging, meaning it never records every key an employee types. Furthermore, ShadowLock does not transmit the actual content of AI interactions to its servers; instead, it classifies and flags risky activity locally on the endpoint. This zero-content transmission approach means that sensitive data, including customer records, trade secrets, and personal information, never leaves the organization's control. This architecture also simplifies compliance with data protection regulations by minimizing data processing and storage requirements.

Healthcare HIPAA Compliance Enforcement

Healthcare organizations and their MSPs use ShadowLock to prevent protected health information from being exposed through unauthorized AI tools. When employees paste patient data, clinical notes, or diagnostic information into public AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude, the platform intercepts and blocks the action. This is critical because using public AI tools without a Business Associate Agreement in place triggers HIPAA exposure, regardless of whether a data breach actually occurs. ShadowLock provides the audit trail necessary to demonstrate compliance and respond to regulatory inquiries, protecting both the healthcare provider and their MSP from significant liability.

MSP Client Risk Management

Managed Service Providers deploy ShadowLock across their entire client base to address the growing gap in AI governance that traditional endpoint protection does not cover. When a client experiences an AI-related data incident, the MSP can face liability claims based on the argument that they should have known about and prevented the risky behavior. ShadowLock gives MSPs the visibility to detect shadow AI usage and the controls to stop it, documenting all actions with audit-ready reports. This proactive approach protects the MSP from liability while demonstrating value to clients who may not have considered the risks of unapproved AI tool usage.

Enterprise Intellectual Property Protection

Organizations with valuable intellectual property, including source code, product plans, trade secrets, and confidential business documents, use ShadowLock to prevent these assets from being submitted to public AI tools. AI coding assistants like GitHub Copilot and Cursor, desktop AI applications like Claude Desktop, and browser-based chatbots all present risks for IP exposure. ShadowLock detects when employees attempt to paste proprietary code or confidential documents into these tools and enforces policies to block or warn about the action. This protection is essential for maintaining trade secret protections and preventing the inadvertent disclosure of competitive advantages.

Regulatory Compliance and Incident Response

Organizations subject to data protection regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and industry-specific frameworks use ShadowLock to maintain compliance and improve incident response capabilities. When regulators ask which AI tools were used, what data was processed, and by whom, organizations without visibility cannot provide defensible answers. ShadowLock maintains detailed audit logs of all AI interactions, including which tool was used, which account was involved, and what type of data was at risk. This information is critical for conducting thorough incident response, meeting notification obligations, and demonstrating due diligence to regulators. Without prior visibility, organizations face broken triage processes and indefensible positions during investigations.

What types of AI tools and applications does ShadowLock detect and govern?

ShadowLock detects and governs over 100 different 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 such as sidebar assistants and email rewriters, desktop AI apps including Claude Desktop, the ChatGPT app, Ollama, and LM Studio, AI coding assistants like GitHub Copilot and Cursor, embedded SaaS AI features like Copilot inside approved applications, and meeting transcription tools such as Otter.ai and Fireflies. The platform covers browser-based, desktop, and cloud-based AI tools across the full spectrum of employee usage.

How does ShadowLock protect employee privacy while monitoring AI usage?

ShadowLock is built with a privacy-first architecture that does not include keystroke logging and does not transmit the actual content of AI interactions to any external servers. Instead, the platform performs classification and risk assessment locally on the endpoint, identifying sensitive data patterns without recording every keystroke or transmitting document contents. This approach allows organizations to enforce data protection policies and maintain audit trails without creating additional privacy risks or processing personal data unnecessarily. The design also simplifies compliance with data protection regulations by minimizing data collection and storage.

How is ShadowLock deployed across an organization, and what IT resources are required?

ShadowLock is designed for easy deployment without requiring dedicated security engineering resources. The Windows endpoint agent deploys silently via existing RMM tools, requiring no user interaction or disruption to workflow. Once the agent is installed, the browser enforcement layer self-configures automatically, applying policies and controls without manual setup. The Microsoft 365 scanner connects to each client tenant to detect AI app usage. All controls are managed from a single multi-tenant dashboard that provides real-time visibility and policy management. This streamlined deployment approach makes ShadowLock accessible to MSPs and IT teams of all sizes.

What compliance and regulatory frameworks does ShadowLock support?

ShadowLock supports compliance with major data protection and privacy frameworks, including HIPAA for healthcare organizations, GDPR for European data protection, CCPA for California privacy requirements, and various industry-specific regulations. The platform provides audit-ready reports that document AI usage, policy enforcement actions, and risk classification events, giving organizations the documentation needed to demonstrate due diligence to regulators. For healthcare organizations, ShadowLock helps prevent ePHI exposure through unauthorized AI tools, which is critical since public AI chatbots typically do not have Business Associate Agreements in place. For organizations subject to GDPR, the platform helps ensure customer PII is not processed through unapproved vendors without a lawful basis or compliant transfer mechanism.