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Guide to Slack import and export tools

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Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#331

Post by aaron695 »

> In the email they seem to be blaming GDPR, by making this ability retroactive does anyone know if they are contradicting their earlier privacy policy?

Updates to our Privacy Policy and tools

Hello,

Slack is committed to helping teams around the world work better, together. As part of our growth and in support of upcoming changes to EU data protection law, we’re launching new tools and features and updating our Privacy Policy and User Terms.

Here’s a quick summary of the changes:

Improved clarity and transparency. We’ve re-organized our Privacy Policy to make it clearer and more understandable, defined key terms, described our data processing practices and included examples showing how Slack implements this Policy.

GDPR updates. The upcoming General Data Protection Regulation places new obligations on organizations that process EU personal data. As a result, we’re updating our Privacy Policy and User Terms to better explain our relationship with our customers and users.

Tools and features. We’re introducing a profile deletion tool, updating our import and export tools, and improving our workspace settings center so you can see your team’s plan, admins and settings.

We hope these updates will help make work a little more pleasant and productive, wherever you’re based. Need assistance? Drop us a note at feedback@slack.com. And as always, thank you for using Slack.

The team at Slack

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#332

Post by tptacek »

kuschku wrote: post #309
tptacek wrote: post #247

How is this possibly news? Besides the fact than Slack has let owners read DMs through compliance export since forever, most company Slacks authenticate via mail (usually Google mail), which your employer controls . This is no different than company emails, which (I hope this isn't surprising) your employer can also read. Don't have personal conversations on your company Slack!

> Don't have personal conversations on your company Slack! You may be discussing unionization on your company Slack, though, and the employer may now use that against you. There’s a lot more than strictly work-related content, and strictly private content. A huge grey area is inbetween, and the employer shouldn’t be able to access any of them (and as the ECHR ruled, the employer may now)

If you’re worried about that, don’t use company Slack. But you should know that federal law protects employee organizing, especially for unions; if your employer retaliates, you can bring a claim against them.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#334

Post by thomasz »

chimeracoder wrote: post #277
detaro wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ECHR has ruled that it is not a violation of human rights, that does not override national law that limits employers if it exists.

> The ECHR has ruled that it is not a violation of the convention on human rights, that does not override national law that limits employers if it exists. It doesn't override national law, but national law is pretty consistently clear that employers have this right as well - that's why the case was before the ECHR in the first place.

Again, it depends on individual agreements. If the employee is not allowed to use his work company mail for private stuff, he has no reasonable expectation of privacy that goes beyond obvious cases. Like, for example, if your wife sends you a mail with the subject "here are my nudes!", your employer isn't allowed to access the content.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#335

Post by misakwa »

peterkelly wrote: post #194
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…

If two people want to have a private conversation, they'll just find another means by which to do it. In the long run, abusing your privileged access to conversations intended to be private (however justified you may consider it to be) will just breed mistrust among employees. I would quit a job that treated me as a child which must be supervised in such a manner.

I think one of the side-effects of this is that there are other slack teams created to help keep communications among colleagues private-ish. This leads to cliques and tends to isolate new employees who may not yet be in those "teams".

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#336

Post by arez »

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…

It's called "private" for a reason. If someone harasses me on Slack, I have proof of that, because they wrote me a message. If people have private conversations about anything, it should be of no one's concern. Same goes for Signal or Whatsapp, it's a private conversation. It's like putting microphones everywhere and then fire people who have a bad day and say something stupid once in a while, would you like that? This is not a world I wanna live in and it's a serious move against privacy and freedom of speech.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#337

Post by Algent »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #141
s3nnyy wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Compare that to our email, where I can go into anyone's messages immediately if need-be. This is all very standard corporate IT stuff that you need for HR and legal reasons." Wow, THAT is highly illegal in Europe.

I was under the impression it WAS legal in Europe as well after being litigated to the Court of Human Rights[1]. The requirement is simply that they inform you ahead of time that they can (and will) monitor your email. In the US there is usually a form you sign at your hiring that says you understand the company may monitor your email. It is couched in terms like "to ensure compliance with laws and company policy" bu…

In France the current legal viewpoint is your company can open your emails/files except if the subject/body explicitly say it's private.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#338

Post by protomyth »

netcraft wrote: post #249
protomyth wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> abusing your privileged access to conversations intended to be private (however justified you may consider it to be) will just breed mistrust among employees Abusing your privileged access?!? You do realize some of us are required to access those communications for a variety of reasons especially because a threat is happening? Also, I don't get a choice when the lawyer shows up and says we need to look at X's accou…

> because a threat is happening because an "alleged" threat is happening. Still, cause for gathering evidence, sure. > I don't get a choice when the lawyer shows up and says we need to look at X's account And now with this, they'll use a different communication method that you dont have access to and now youre back to square one. The best you can hope for is that theyre ignorant of these changes so you can catch them…

The company isn't a court "alleged" is plenty enough for the company to look at the communication system it pays for to figure out what is going on. It has a communication system to communicate about business.

> And now with this, they'll use a different communication method that you dont have access to and now youre back to square one. The best you can hope for is that theyre ignorant of these changes so you can catch them.

Good, then its security and HR's problem. We tell everyone we own the communications systems (its even in the employee handbook).

> ah, guilty until proven innocent

Yep. Welcome to the corporate environment in the US. Frankly, if they think you used the company e-mail / Slack to do your activity then I don't think we are dealing with Moriarty here.

> but you shouldnt assume that communications that the user doesnt want the company to be privy to is necessarily malicious or illegal.

Then use your own non-company communication system (e.g. text, home e-mail) or go to lunch - how hard is that?

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#339

Post by detaro »

chimeracoder wrote: post #277
detaro wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ECHR has ruled that it is not a violation of human rights, that does not override national law that limits employers if it exists.

> The ECHR has ruled that it is not a violation of the convention on human rights, that does not override national law that limits employers if it exists. It doesn't override national law, but national law is pretty consistently clear that employers have this right as well - that's why the case was before the ECHR in the first place.

You claimed that specific rules the poster you replied to mentioned aren't relevant due to the ECHR decision, and that's just not true. E.g. here in Germany, an employer needs to explicitly forbid private e-mail to be allowed simple access to employee mail, which is why basically everyone does that, often allowing private internet use to access webmail instead. (I've also seen employee agreements where there's different rules for specific folders: a private archive folder is never accessed, work-related folders can be easily accessed and e.g. looking at new mail in the inbox is allowed if it's done under supervision and e-mail that's clearly recognizable as private isn't opened, since private mail was hard to avoid in the specific case)

This is something were you likely can not make useful blanket "in Europe" statements.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#340

Post by Piskvorrr »

enzo1982 wrote: post #313
Piskvorrr wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"probably the whole EU" [citation-needed]. German privacy law is very strict. This might be a good thing, don't get me wrong - but extrapolating this to all the other 27 member states is pure nonsense.

The European Court of Human Rights recently ruled that an employee's communication may not be monitored without prior notice and without specific reasons. [1] This ruling applies not only to the whole EU, but to the 47 member states of the Council of European, including for example Russia and Turkey. [1] https://www.coe.int/en/web/human-rights-rule-of-law/-/echr-m...

I'm aware of this, yet "prior notice + specific reasons" != "approval of the workers' council for each individual case"
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