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What is Sastrify Browser Extension?


The Sastrify Browser Extension is a lightweight browser add-on designed to enhance visibility into SaaS usage across your organization. It seamlessly supports the discovery of shadow IT and provides actionable insights—such as SaaS utilization trends and usage patterns—directly within your Sastrify platform. The extension operates only when users interact with SaaS applications using their company email, ensuring relevance and data accuracy while respecting user privacy.



All collected data is securely transmitted to your Sastrify platform, where your Sastrify Admin can access detailed usage insights in the Usage tab of each tool and discover and manage new applications through the Shadow IT Radar feature.

What does the Sastrify browser extension do?


The Sastrify browser extension tracks business SaaS tool usage to help assess overall engagement levels with tools within an organization. It focuses solely on SaaS URLs and does not monitor general web browsing activity.


By monitoring SaaS usage, the extension can also identify shadow IT—any unapproved or unmonitored software tools that employees might use without the organization’s knowledge. Detecting these unauthorized tools helps maintain compliance, reduce security risks, and ensure a consistent software environment.


It focuses exclusively on SaaS-related URLs and does not monitor general web browsing activity.

What does Sastrify browser extension track?


The extension strictly tracks access to and activity within approved SaaS applications accessed via the organization’s work email. It collects the following data points:

  • Website hostnames of approved SaaS tools
  • User interaction metrics (e.g., click counts, keystroke counts, file upload events)
  • Session duration and timestamps (access and exit times)
  • Configuration data, such as approved product URLs
  • Work email address from the Chrome or Edge work profile, which serves as an Employee/User ID


In doing so, we maintain a strict privacy-first approach to data handling:

  • User identifiers are cryptographically hashed to ensure anonymization.
  • Only whitelisted business SaaS applications are monitored—personal websites and content are never tracked.
  • Automatic exclusion of certain domains, including career sites, job boards, and non-business application URLs.
  • Data is transmitted securely via HTTPS, using OAuth for authentication.
  • Minimal data collection principle: Only essential usage metrics are gathered to support organizational analytics.

Which parts of the collected data are stored in the database?


Only the following information is stored in the database:

  • Access dates and times

  • Website hostnames and URLs — used to identify SaaS tool usage and detect potential shadow IT

What happens to the rest of the data, like clicks or file uploads?


Other data—such as click counts, file upload events, session durations by hostname, and employee email addresses—is logged temporarily for syncing and short-term referencing. This information is not stored in the database and is cleared immediately after the sync is complete.

Does the extension track non-SaaS URLs or other browsing activity?


No. The extension is specifically designed to ignore non-SaaS URLs and does not track or transmit any general browsing activity.

How does the extension help identify shadow IT?


The extension detects patterns in the SaaS URLs you visit, helping to identify tools that are in use but not yet approved or monitored by your organization. This visibility supports efforts to manage security, compliance, and cost risks associated with shadow IT.

Where is the logged data stored?


All logged data is stored on servers located in Ireland (EU), in compliance with EU data protection regulations.

How is employee privacy protected?


  • The extension only monitors SaaS tool usage—not general web browsing

  • It never stores personal browsing data

  • User authentication ensures that only authorized employees’ SaaS activity, tied to their corporate profiles, is captured

  • Usage linked to personal email addresses is never collected

How can we, as Sastrify clients, benefit from the browser extension and the data it collects?


By collecting insights on SaaS usage, the browser extension helps organizations

  • Measure engagement—understand how frequently tools are used and assess overall adoption

  • Optimize spending—align subscriptions with actual usage to reduce costs and ensure employees have access to the right tools

  • Identify shadow IT—detect unapproved tools in use to support better security, compliance, and IT governance

How is the browser extension installed?


The browser extension can be installed using one of the following methods:

  • Admin Installation: This method allows the extension to be deployed across the entire organization with a single action from an administrator. It ensures a company-wide rollout without requiring individual user involvement.

  • Manual Installation: This decentralized approach requires each user to manually install the browser extension on their own work browser.

Once installed, are end-user logins required for the browser extension to work?



No, once the extension is installed, no further action is required from end users. The extension works as intended without the need for user logins.

When does data start showing up in the Sastrify Radar?


After successful activation, it may take some time for tools to appear in the Sastrify Radar. The user must actively browse using the profile where the extension is installed so the system can detect and log SaaS tool usage.

Why isn’t my tool usage showing up in the Sastrify Radar?


There are a few possible reasons:

  1. Timing
    It can take some time after activation for the system to collect and process enough usage data.

  2. Detection Logic
    Our detection system is continuously evolving to better identify tools based on browser tab activity. Some tools may not be recognized immediately as we work to reduce false positives and missed entries.

  3. User Activity Threshold Not Met
    Usage data may not appear if minimum activity levels haven’t been reached. The current thresholds include

    • At least 20 clicks

    • At least 15 keystrokes

    • Any file upload activity

    • A session duration of more than 3 minutes

Do users need to be logged into Sastrify for this information to be collected?


No. As long as the browser extension that sits on your employees' browsers is fully installed, it will collect the data and push it seamlessly to your Sastrify platform.

I use my work Chrome browser with my personal profile because I have all my personal bookmarks there. Will the browser extension also track my usage of the apps I access using my personal Gmail or email address?


No. The Sastrify browser extension is very strict about what it collects and what it does not collect. It only collects usage data of the SaaS applications that are accessed using your company email address, which is the email address you use to log in to the extension. It does nothing beyond that.