Is Sandtime.io employee monitoring software?
No. Sandtime.io is a trust-based time reporting product, not employee monitoring software, not surveillance software, and not tattleware.
What Sandtime.io is designed for
- self-reported work time,
- timesheets and approvals,
- reporting for payroll, billing, and project visibility,
- simple timer-based or manual time entry across web, mobile, desktop, browser extension, and Slack,
- privacy-first records that managers and teams can both live with.
What Sandtime.io is not designed for
- screenshot capture or screen recording,
- keystroke logging or activity scoring,
- app or website spying,
- covert or always-on device monitoring,
- webcam, microphone, or browser-history collection.
Sandtime.io vs employee monitoring software
Sandtime.io asks people to report their time. Employee monitoring software tries to observe or infer work from device activity.
With Sandtime.io, a manager gets timesheets, approvals, reports, billable and non-billable breakdowns, historical rates, and project visibility. With employee monitoring software, the manager usually wants screenshots, app and website usage, activity percentages, idle-time alerts, or playback of device activity.
If your goal is trust-based reporting and usable timesheets, Sandtime.io fits. If your goal is surveillance, productivity scoring, or forensic visibility into devices, it does not.
Why this matters for privacy
No screenshots. No screen recording. No webcam or microphone prompts. No keystroke logging.
On the web, Sandtime.io runs inside normal browser permission boundaries, and the product does not request camera, microphone, or screen-capture access. In Our Chrome Extension, the declared host access is limited to *.sandtime.io, not arbitrary sites, and there is no browser history permission.
Sandtime.io is not built to inspect which unrelated apps you use or which websites you browse outside Sandtime.io. It is also not open source. Still, the shipped clients are not magic black boxes: browsers expose permission prompts, extension permissions are inspectable, and native app binaries can be inspected or reverse-engineered by anyone motivated enough. There are no hidden screenshot, recording, or monitoring features here.
If you actually need employee monitoring software
If you are specifically shopping for employee monitoring software rather than time reporting, evaluate products in that category instead:
- Time Doctor - time tracking combined with app and website histories, activity metrics, and optional screenshots or screen recordings.
- Hubstaff - time tracking combined with optional screenshots, activity levels, app and URL usage, and GPS for field teams.
- ActivTrak - workforce analytics and app or website activity insights for hybrid and remote teams.
- Teramind - deeper endpoint monitoring, screen playback, app and website monitoring, and insider-risk controls.
That is a different category of tool. Sandtime.io is for teams that need honest time records without turning work into digital surveillance.
If code transparency is part of your trust checklist, also read Is Sandtime.io open source?.