How to Protect SaaS Data When You Can't Control the Device

When you can't control the device—contractors, BYOD, shadow IT, or remote workers on personal laptops—protecting SaaS data becomes a fundamental challenge. Grip Security's 2025 SaaS Security Risks Report reveals that 90% of SaaS apps and 91% of AI tools remain unmanaged, highlighting pervasive shadow SaaS usage, risk creep, and lack of visibility that lead to data exposure even when endpoints are out of your hands. This guide curates the latest research on how to protect SaaS data when you can't control the device, covering Zero Trust frameworks, browser isolation, continuous monitoring, and practical strategies that work without MDM or device-level controls.

Quick Verdict: Shift Control to Identity, Access, and the Browser

• Zero Trust SaaS security validates every access request—even from unmanaged devices—by focusing on identity and context, not endpoint ownership.
• Shadow IT and unmanaged SaaS create visibility blind spots; continuous discovery and posture management are essential.
• Browser isolation and secure enterprise browsers protect SaaS sessions and data without requiring device agents—a key strategy when endpoints are uncontrolled.
• Data classification, encryption, and IAM become the primary controls when device governance is absent.
• SaaS-to-SaaS integrations create new vectors for data compromise; visibility into app-to-app flows is critical.

1. The Scale of Unmanaged SaaS Risk

Grip Security's 2025 SaaS Security Risks Report underscores that the vast majority of SaaS applications and AI tools remain unmanaged, driving shadow IT, risk creep, and data exposure. Without device control, organizations must focus on application-level security: identity, access policies, data classification, and visibility into what SaaS apps employees actually use. The Cloud Security Alliance's State of SaaS Security 2025 highlights organizational struggles with external data oversharing and unauthorized SaaS use—core data protection issues when endpoints are uncontrolled.

2. Zero Trust Framework for SaaS Protection

Cloudflare's Zero Trust for SaaS design guide explains how Zero Trust can mitigate risks to SaaS data by validating every access request—even from unmanaged devices. The model assumes no implicit trust based on network or device; instead, identity, context, and least-privilege access drive decisions. Techsila's Zero Trust implementation roadmap outlines Zero Trust as essential for securing SaaS data when device control isn't possible, while noting challenges like integration complexity and balancing usability. Reco discusses sustained authentication, threat detection, API vulnerabilities, and continuous monitoring—all central when device control is infeasible.

3. SaaS Security Best Practices Without Device Control

Jit's 7 SaaS Security Best Practices for 2025 emphasizes embedding SaaS security into continuous monitoring and active management—securing data without controlling endpoints or infrastructure. Cyber Security News addresses critical SaaS data protection challenges: access control, encryption, and information rights management, especially when device governance is absent. Key practices include: robust identity and access management (IAM), data classification and encryption at rest and in transit, least-privilege access policies, and continuous posture assessment.

4. SaaS Data Protection: Classification and Visibility

Strac's Guide to SaaS Data Protection examines data identification, classification, and protection challenges in SaaS environments—critical when you can't control endpoint devices. Understanding what data lives where, who accesses it, and how it flows between apps is foundational. Cloudflare's SaaS-to-SaaS security post highlights visibility blind spots and breaches from uncontrolled integrations between SaaS apps—exacerbated when devices are unmanaged. Securing data in SaaS-to-SaaS flows requires visibility into OAuth grants, API connections, and app-to-app data sharing.

5. Browser Isolation: Protecting SaaS Without Device Agents

Zscaler's Zero Trust Browser solution describes how browser isolation helps protect SaaS sessions and data without requiring device agents—a key strategy when you can't control endpoints. Zero Trust browser isolation delivers a secure, isolated browsing session so that sensitive SaaS access happens in a controlled environment; the user's device never directly touches corporate data. This aligns with the approach in Kahana's guide to securing short-term consultants without MDM: shifting from device-centric to browser-centric security.

6. Core Challenges When You Can't Control the Device

Across the sources, several core challenges emerge:

• Lack of visibility into unmanaged devices: SaaS use outside IT control (shadow IT) increases data exposure risk. Cloud Security Alliance underscores that organizational struggles with unauthorized SaaS use create blind spots.
• Insufficient control over access: Without device governance, enforcing robust access policies and authentication becomes harder. Cloudflare argues Zero Trust validates every request regardless of device.
• Data leakage and oversharing: Uncontrolled SaaS usage and app integrations create blind spots. Cloudflare's SaaS-to-SaaS post details how integration sprawl drives breaches.
• Complexity of Zero Trust integration: Full Zero Trust implementation is challenging and resource-intensive. Techsila notes integration complexity and usability trade-offs.
• API and integration risks: Connected SaaS apps create new vectors for data compromise. Reco highlights API vulnerabilities and continuous monitoring needs.

7. Practical Strategies: What Works Without Device Control

• Identity-first security: Strong IAM, MFA, and conditional access so that access decisions depend on identity and context, not device ownership.
• Data classification and encryption: Know what data lives in which SaaS apps; encrypt sensitive data at rest and in transit.
• Continuous SaaS discovery and posture management: Automatically discover shadow SaaS, assess risk, and enforce policies.
• Browser isolation and secure enterprise browsers: Route SaaS access through isolated or policy-enforced browsers so the endpoint never directly holds corporate data.
• SaaS-to-SaaS visibility: Monitor OAuth grants, API connections, and app integrations to prevent uncontrolled data flows.

8. Enterprise Context: Kahana Oasis and Browser-Centric SaaS Protection

For organizations that can't control endpoints—contractors, BYOD, or distributed teams—a secure enterprise browser like Kahana Oasis provides a practical path to SaaS data protection without device control. Oasis delivers policy-enforced browsing, session-level DLP, and comprehensive audit logging so that SaaS access is secured at the browser layer. Whether users are on personal laptops or unmanaged devices, the browser becomes the control point: identity is verified, data movement is restricted, and activity is logged. Learn more about Oasis Enterprise Browser. For related reading, see Securing Short-Term Consultants Without MDM and AI Browser Assistants: Silent Data Leakers.

Final Thoughts

Protecting SaaS data when you can't control the device is not impossible—it requires shifting from device-centric to identity-, access-, and browser-centric security. Zero Trust frameworks, continuous monitoring, data classification, and browser isolation offer practical strategies that work without MDM or endpoint control. In 2026, as shadow SaaS and unmanaged AI tools proliferate, organizations must invest in visibility, Zero Trust adoption, and browser-level controls to secure data on devices they'll never own.