Guide to Slack import and export tools • Hacker News Board

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#151

Post by pera » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 4:03 PM UTC

simias wrote: post #47

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.

Arguably, but what if the company wants to find proof of, say, two employees colluding to exfiltrate sensitive data or something like that? Would they have to convince them to turn in the PGP signed logs? More generally like the parent I don't see why a company couldn't have full control over their corporate tools.

> two employees colluding to exfiltrate sensitive data or something like that

In that case spying Slack usage is simply not enough: the employer should need to spy every single move every employee makes inside and outside the company, which of course it's not possible (well, except if the company is located in a fascist state).

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#152

Post by tzs » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 4:03 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?

They aren't supposed to in the US. See the "Audio Monitoring" section of this ABA article [1].

Here's another article with more information on a state by state basis [2].

[1] https://www.americanbar.org/publications/human_rights_magazi...

[2] https://www.upcounsel.com/audio-surveillance-laws-by-state

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#153

Post by brazzledazzle » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 4:03 PM UTC

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…

I wish a compromise between willy-nilly dumps of private DMs and their Compliance Exports could have been found. As a user who is not the head of IT this is frustrating. Now frank discussions have to go back to out-of-band channels.

If anyone thinks this won't get abused, think again. I've worked with IT folks of all shapes and sizes over many years and a tiny percentage do abuse the privilege. Including heads of IT. And those are just the ones I know about.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#154

Post by brazzledazzle » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 4:03 PM UTC

They had compliance exports and I wish they'd stuck with that since turning them on notified everyone that your employer could now see everything and prevented them from exporting anything private prior to that.

I know why they did this but a compromise could have been found. With this ability someone can dump everything and just read through it with users none-the-wiser. If users read the previous documentation they'd even believe they were safe from snooping and would be notified when it started. At least with compliance exports the users were informed and had privacy.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#155

Post by jcims » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 4:03 PM UTC

This will open up Slack to industries that frown upon creating communication channels between employees that cannot be recorded.

http://bizblog.blackberry.com/2015/07/chatrooms-in-finance-w...

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#156

Post by spelunker » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 4:04 PM UTC

random4369 wrote: post #93

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…

There's an infinite space of solutions to your particular problem, but your chosen solution is totalitarian surveillance in the workplace because an intern got offended? I avoid workplaces which force shit like this. So do all the good developers I know, because they're people who can afford to be choosy. Bullies are pretty adept at functioning in these environments. Instead of harassing on monitored DMs, they'll mak…

> I avoid workplaces which force shit like this. So do all the good developers I know, because they're people who can afford to be choosy.

So you and your choosy developer friends work at a place where IT can't access your corporate email?

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#157

Post by ben509 » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 4:04 PM UTC

089723645897236 wrote: post #53

This is a good thing. People need to realize work chat is a paper trail...

As a society, we're having a very hard time adjusting to all kinds of social media.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#158

Post by yiiii » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 4:04 PM UTC

gumby wrote: post #46

It's hard to see how this is bad -- they have/should be able to have access to your other work-related communication and work product (modulo the weird rules around things like salespersons' "rolodex"es). It's so easy to have private channels these days it's hard to see how this should even inconvenience anyone.

Because it is illegal in many countries to access somebody's personal communication even if it uses eg. a corporate email address?

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#159

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 4:05 PM UTC

tzs wrote: post #152

dugluak wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They aren't supposed to in the US. See the "Audio Monitoring" section of this ABA article [1]. Here's another article with more information on a state by state basis [2]. [1] https://www.americanbar.org/publications/human_rights_magazi... [2] https://www.upcounsel.com/audio-surveillance-laws-by-state

[deleted]

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#160

Post by stedaniels » Wed, Mar 21, 2018, 4:05 PM UTC

froindt wrote: post #106

Null-Set wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a company policy I sure hope your IT doesn't make emails available to your management.

No they don't, but I work at a large megacorp. At a small 10-20 person non-technology company startup, the admin on Slack is likely to be the owner or general manager. It could be another 5-10 people before a person is hired on as full-time IT.

If the owner or GM has enough time to dip into Slack DM's, or even emails, the company has bigger issues.