Security vs Policy Compliance
Security vs Governance
HiddenLayer is built for security teams protecting AI models from adversarial attacks, data poisoning, and model theft. PolicyGuard is built for compliance teams enforcing employee AI usage policies. These are entirely different domains.
Different Problems
HiddenLayer solves a technical security problem: protecting AI models from attacks. PolicyGuard solves a policy compliance problem: ensuring employees follow AI usage rules and producing audit evidence of enforcement.
Most Companies Need Policy First
Most mid-market companies don't deploy their own AI models, so model security isn't their primary concern. But nearly every company has employees using third-party AI tools that need governance.
Employee Focus
PolicyGuard governs the 80% of employees using third-party AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Claude. HiddenLayer governs the AI models themselves. Choose based on where your governance gap is.
PolicyGuard vs HiddenLayer
| Capability | PolicyGuard | HiddenLayer |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | AI policy compliance | AI model security |
| Target user | Compliance officers | Security teams |
| Model protection | Not applicable | Yes |
| Adversarial detection | Not applicable | Yes |
| Employee policy enforcement | ||
| Point-of-use acknowledgment | Yes (browser extension) | |
| Shadow AI detection | ||
| Employee AI training | ||
| Audit trail (compliance) | Compliance-focused | Security-focused |
Who Should Choose PolicyGuard
- Organizations focused on governing employee AI tool usage
- Compliance teams needing audit evidence of policy enforcement
- Companies without proprietary AI models to protect
- Mid-market organizations needing policy compliance, not model security
Who Should Choose HiddenLayer
- Organizations deploying their own AI models that need protection
- Security teams focused on AI infrastructure and model integrity
- Companies concerned about AI supply chain attacks and data poisoning
- Teams needing model integrity monitoring and adversarial detection
Frequently Asked Questions
Only if you deploy your own AI models AND need to govern employee AI usage. Most mid-market companies don't build proprietary AI models, so they only need employee-level governance from PolicyGuard. If you do deploy models, HiddenLayer protects the models while PolicyGuard governs how employees use AI tools.
HiddenLayer focuses on AI model security — protecting models from adversarial attacks, theft, and manipulation. It does not enforce employee AI usage policies, track policy acknowledgments, or generate compliance audit trails. For policy compliance evidence, you need PolicyGuard.
Most organizations are fully deployed within one week. The browser extension installs in minutes via GPO or MDM, and AI policy templates are ready to use immediately. No infrastructure changes required.
