The Visibility Gap That Breaks Privacy (and Budgets)

Most privacy and security risks don’t come from bad actors — they come from what IT can’t see. Here’s why visibility gaps are breaking compliance and budgets in 2026.

When You Can’t See It, You Can’t Secure It

Modern organizations run on SaaS — but few realize how much of that ecosystem operates outside IT’s line of sight. What started as a few “helpful” unsanctioned tools has grown into hundreds or even thousands of unmanaged apps per company, quietly processing sensitive data every day.

According to Waldo Security’s 2025 SaaS & Cloud Discovery Report:

• 97% of SaaS apps are unknown to IT, and

• 93% lack standard compliance certifications.

That’s not a small oversight — it’s a systemic visibility gap quietly eroding privacy, compliance, and budget discipline.

Shadow IT Is No Longer Just a Security Problem

Shadow IT used to mean an employee signing up for an unapproved app. Now, it’s far more complex.Shadow SaaS, identities, and even cloud accounts — often called Shadow CSPs — are creating invisible data paths across organizations.

100% of organizations analyzed in the 2025 report had unauthorized AWS, Azure, or GCP accounts.Each of these environments can hold workloads and storage buckets that never appear in governance dashboards.

That means IT doesn’t just lose visibility — it loses control over where corporate data lives and how it’s protected.

Privacy Risks Multiply in the Dark

When 97% of apps are invisible to IT, privacy officers can’t confirm:

• Who has access to personal or regulated data

• Whether apps meet GDPR, HIPAA, or SOC 2 requirements

• If offboarding workflows actually remove accounts

The result: privacy teams are left guessing. Data subject access requests (DSARs) become impossible to fulfill accurately. Contracts promise compliance that can’t be proven. Audit readiness collapses.

Regulators and frameworks like the NIST Privacy Framework emphasize continuous visibility into data flows — but most organizations simply don’t have it. It’s not that privacy leaders don’t care; it’s that they’re blind to the tools being used.

The Financial Impact: SaaS Waste and Budget Drain

The visibility gap doesn’t just break privacy; it breaks budgets too.

Unmonitored subscriptions, overlapping licenses, and unused apps often account for 25–40% of SaaS spend in large organizations.

Departments pay for redundant tools, and finance teams can’t reconcile usage because the applications never passed through procurement.

Gartner’s Market Guide for SaaS Management Platforms highlights this as one of the fastest-growing IT cost drains — and one of the easiest to fix once full visibility is achieved.

In an era of tightening budgets, SaaS sprawl has become the most expensive kind of shadow: invisible, unaccounted for, and constantly growing.

OAuth: The Silent Risk Multiplier

Even among visible apps, a quiet threat persists — OAuth permissions.The 2025 Waldo report found that only 1% of SaaS apps use OAuth, and less than 0.2% request high-risk scopes such as inbox, file, or cloud access.

OAuth tokens often grant persistent access to sensitive data — long after a user leaves the organization.That’s why identifying these high-risk scopes early is critical to prevent silent exposure.

In other words: even if you think you’ve locked the door, the key may still be in the lock.

Bridging the Visibility Gap

Closing the visibility gap starts with comprehensive discovery. Security and privacy teams must shift from reactive controls to proactive intelligence — identifying every SaaS, cloud, and identity connection across the organization.

Modern SaaS governance platforms, such as Waldo Security’s SaaS & Cloud Discovery Engine, are designed to:

• Automatically map every SaaS and Shadow CSP account

• Classify applications by compliance framework

• Detect high-risk OAuth permissions

• Quantify unmanaged identities and budget waste

This aligns with the CISA Secure Cloud Business Applications (SCuBA) guidance, which calls for automated discovery and continuous monitoring to maintain a secure cloud posture.

The result is not just compliance — it’s control.

Conclusion: You Can’t Protect What You Can’t See

Visibility is the foundation of privacy, governance, and cost efficiency. Without it, even the most well-funded security program operates on assumptions instead of evidence.

Waldo Security’s latest research makes one thing clear:

Organizations that close the visibility gap don’t just reduce risk — they save money, strengthen compliance, and regain control of their SaaS and cloud footprint.

👉 See how other organizations are tackling SaaS and Cloud Discovery challenges in the 2025 Waldo Security Report.

About Waldo Security

Waldo Security helps organizations discover, classify, and secure every SaaS and cloud service in use — known or unknown. By illuminating Shadow IT, unmanaged identities, and OAuth risk, Waldo enables CISOs and IT leaders to regain governance, reduce compliance exposure, and control SaaS spending.