Guide to Slack import and export tools • Hacker News Board

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#81

Post by jrs95 » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 3:42 PM UTC

dumbfounder wrote: post #60

Let's clarify a bit, this is for the employer owned Slack workspace. If you have the client and have your employer workspace and then another random workspace that is not owned by your employer, then they can only see the messages on the workspace owned by the company. And this is meant for backups really, it's not going to be easy to just follow random conversations of yours on a daily basis. If they want to go back…

It seems like this requires Slack Plus and not just the Standard plan. It's not clear to me if you can access all historical data immediately after upgrading to Plus, though.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#82

Post by cirgue » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 3:43 PM UTC

dumbfounder wrote: post #60

Let's clarify a bit, this is for the employer owned Slack workspace. If you have the client and have your employer workspace and then another random workspace that is not owned by your employer, then they can only see the messages on the workspace owned by the company. And this is meant for backups really, it's not going to be easy to just follow random conversations of yours on a daily basis. If they want to go back…

> Let's clarify a bit, this is for the employer owned Slack workspace.

My company doesn't use slack, but it is a little crazy to me that this wasn't already the case for employer-owned workspaces.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#83

Post by EpicEng » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 3:43 PM UTC

dugluak wrote: post #76

EpicEng wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if you're living in one of their cells. Your employer pays for slack and it is a work related tool, just like your emails. If you want to have private communications then send a text. BTW they can also search your desk because, you know, it's not yours.

what about, lets say, conversations in the company owned cafeteria? can the employer record them without your consent and use as evidence against you?

Depends on the state I would assume, but of course IANAL. Some states have single party consent, and you're certainly not in a private area. You'd have to look into the eavesdropping laws where you live. You realize that many buildings have security cameras, right?

I'm still very confused as to why you believe that your communications over a company owned platform should/would be private.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#84

Post by laurentb » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 3:43 PM UTC

dugluak wrote: post #49

darkstar999 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without.

how is it legal. Even the law enforcement needs to provide a warrant in case they want to search my apartment.

they don't however, need to provide a warrant for their own apartment. that's effectively what slack is implementing, it does not mean that they can go through your personal slack setups. just fyi, any application that is provided by your employer is theirs and most likely in your contract is that everything you say or write is their own property.

if your mobile is paid for by your employer, they have access to anything on that as well, this include texts, mms, and call logs.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#85

Post by scolson » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 3:43 PM UTC

dugluak wrote: post #49

darkstar999 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without.

how is it legal. Even the law enforcement needs to provide a warrant in case they want to search my apartment.

Your employer owns the data, not you. The owner of something doesn't need special permission to look at it. It could be a company provided computer, email, or filing cabinet; they all belong to your work and they do not need to ask anyone to get in and look at the contents.

Even something that has a reasonable expectation of only containing personal belongings (eg. a locker) may or may not be protected from employer search as each state in the US has slightly different rules.

For work related tools, the rules are almost entirely stacked towards having no right to privacy whether a company policy exists or not.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#86

Post by darawk » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 3:43 PM UTC

jerf wrote: post #38

fjsolwmv wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why can't the recipient save a copy of logs?

Provenance. I can doctor my local logs just about as quickly as I can type. True, it's a bit harder than some people estimate to keep the whole thing coherent, but that just means that you hear about the people who get caught, but not the ones who do it successfully. If I am capable of doctoring Slack's copy of the logs with sufficient effort, it is certainly orders of magnitude harder and much legally riskier (as I…

That's easy to disprove, though. Make them log into their slack on a new computer, and they'll have no opportunity to doctor them.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#87

Post by mixmastamyk » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 3:43 PM UTC

softawre wrote: post #75

ramblerman wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Only way to see it was to boot an offending intern from his work station and go into his Slack to see what was happening. Why couldn't you just ask the recipient to look on his station? > We had to make all intern accounts into multi-channel guests after that Are 2 interns ever allowed to be alone together? I mean it's essentially the same, you are saying they can't be trusted so either you always need them in grou…

Not to be contrarian here, but could you offer a solution given that you've thought about this?

Did you miss his first (the second) paragraph?

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#88

Post by softawre » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 3:45 PM UTC

dugluak wrote: post #64

duxup wrote: post #23

I think if the employer provides the tool, it is their data. I know there are different traditions in other places where they consider something like work email to be more of an employee owned or privacy issues. I always thought that was a bit wonky and it is easier to identify who owns what by ... who owns it.

what if your cafeteria conversation is recorded on a camera without your consent and used as an evidence against you? is it legal or invasion of privacy?

Did you have the expectation of privacy (probably not). These are not new issues and there is existing law around them.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#89

Post by dsacco » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 3:45 PM UTC

IncRnd wrote: post #43

antris wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could have the logs signed with Slack's PGP key so they cannot be altered without the signature causing a mismatch.

There are security issues here that you may not be aware. For one example, if technically knowledgeable people want to falsify signed logs without having the signing key, they can simply keep a separate set of logs with actual innocuous conversations. Slack would sign those in your scenario without a problem. This is the canonical problem of keeping "double-books".

While I agree with auditable access to employee DMs, there is a middle ground solution that trivially solves the problem you've presented. Instead of providing the employer with access to the employee's messages directly, logs can be signed at both the blob and message level. Then if an employee selectively turns over only some of their logs, the mismatch will be readily apparent.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#90

Post by castlecrasher2 » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 3:46 PM UTC

ramblerman wrote: post #68

tvanantwerp wrote: post #13

As head of IT for a company using Slack: FINALLY. Don't get me wrong--it's not like I want to read your messages and very likely won't. But there are times when I have no choice. A few years back, a group of interns started privately harassing other interns via Slack. Only way to see it was to boot an offending intern from his work station and go into his Slack to see what was happening. We had to make all intern acc…

> Only way to see it was to boot an offending intern from his work station and go into his Slack to see what was happening. Why couldn't you just ask the recipient to look on his station? > We had to make all intern accounts into multi-channel guests after that Are 2 interns ever allowed to be alone together? I mean it's essentially the same, you are saying they can't be trusted so either you always need them in grou…

You have to ask why they wouldn't want to talk to an individual suspected of wrongdoing? Why look at security footage, when you can "just ask" the suspect?