Glossary

Shadow IT

Any software, SaaS account, or cloud service an employee uses for work without IT approval or visibility.

Also known as: shadow SaaS, rogue IT, BYOA (bring your own app)

Shadow IT happens when employees sign up for tools — usually free or freemium SaaS — to get a job done faster than the official procurement process allows. It's rarely malicious; it's usually a productivity workaround that quietly becomes a security and cost problem.

The risks compound over time. Credentials live outside SSO. Data uploaded to those tools isn't backed up, encrypted, or covered by your DLP policy. When the employee leaves, the account stays live with their corporate email and whatever data they put in it.

Detecting shadow IT is the first step to controlling it. SeatMap surfaces every SaaS account tied to a corporate email — even ones IT never approved — so you can decide what to consolidate, what to sanction, and what to revoke.

Examples

Related terms

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