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Guide to Slack import and export tools

get.slack.help

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Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#361

Post by evrydayhustling »

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.

Nobody can or should stop you from finding private spaces to talk to fellow employees -- but you have to provide the space yourself. Slack is part of the work environment being set up for you by your employer, so they're responsible for being able to make sure that it's free of harassment and illegal activity.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#362

Post by thefifthsetpin »

Yesterday, a private channel existed where your employee Jim may have mentioned to his friend and coworker that he had a date with his male partner. Today, that data became available to you. You were planning to fire Jim, but now there's a risk that it would look discriminatory. Do you risk a wrongful termination lawsuit and dragging your company's name through the mud? You could check his slack messages to assess that risk, but if you do find something then you're in an even worse situation.

This seems like the same minefield as asking an employee to login to his facebook. The main difference is that this time, slack did it to you -- you were not given a chance to opt-out.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#363

Post by Cacti »

afastow wrote: post #279
dsacco wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You might not want them to know you're reviewing it but they most certainly do want to know that you are. Of course they want to know. Everyone wants to know. But if they committed a crime, or at least are complicit in a lawsuit the company is facing, their desire for privacy on an information channel they don't own is irrelevant. I don't understand why this is controversial. When the SEC, FBI, local police, opposi…

Maybe I missed some context but since when are we talking about committing crimes and the SEC or FBI getting involved? If it's that serious I assume they'd just get a warrant and get the logs directly from Slack. To me that scenario is completely unrelated to the ability of an employer to silently read DMs of their employees for any reason they see fit.

Don't you think some companies need the ability to investigate things their employees are doing for the specific purpose of bringing it to the attention of government agencies PRIOR to warrants being issued and PRIOR to pissing off the entire federal government?

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#365

Post by moduspol »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #174
089723645897236 wrote: post #53

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

A one-way paper trail in favor of the company. If a boss tells me I'm fired for being "too black" and then deletes my slack (and I don't have a screenshot), I'm not going to have any leverage to get proof unless I can get a subpoena (which I wouldn't be able to, most likely)

If it helps, the company is the one paying for that paper trail.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#366

Post by orbitur »

So my longstanding "never write anything in corporate correspondence that I wouldn't want revealed some day" principle seems like a great one.

Seriously. It's not your platform, they are not your emails, they are not your chatlogs, and you should never act as if what you put in will remain private and yours to control.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#368

Post by Cacti »

wolco wrote: post #358
Cacti wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what if the issue is two employees are using Slack to discuss using a competitors proprietary information on a contract proposal? Or two employees are discussing how to arrange the books so that they don't receive margin calls while trying to hide large trading losses? You can't depend on everyone being on the up and up.

Hopefully they would choose there own phones to arrange a corporate takeover.

Yes, well "hopefully" the opposing legal team won't sue you back to the stone age, but hey, it's best to take precautions.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#369

Post by criley2 »

humanrebar wrote: post #254
tedivm wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to tell you this but if you would quit a job for this reason you probably can't work in the US. The US has laws about corporate compliance, and it has requirements for things like dealing with sexual harassment. There is no such thing as a "private conversation" that takes place over a corporate network. For example, in the US sexual harassment is taken seriously. If a company gets a complaint of sexual harass…

> There is no such thing as a "private conversation" that takes place over a corporate network. It's a tech issue, cultural issue, and a legal issue, but it's harmful that we seem to be forgetting the wisdom of discretion as life become more digitized. If the law or culture says "no expectation of discretion", they're just wrong and likely hypocritical. It's healthy, normal, and appropriate to tell specific things to…

Before tech, witness testimony was the same thing.

Old boys club keeps it "verbal only", but someone blows the whistle and testifies regarding the conversation.

Technology didn't change anything. You can't have a private conversation at work. Period end of story. If you manage to conceal your communications, not only could you be violating laws (depending on your industry and relevant regulations) but you're likely violating corporate policy and in need of corrective actions.

It's a liability problem for a company if employees are circumventing documentation and potentially covering up crimes.

The way I see it, you have three options:

* Be rich enough to not work

* Get paid by someone who accepts the liability of your work and has the legal right to all of your business communications

* Be the guy paying other people who accepts liability for their work and has the legal right to their business communications

Spoiler, even if you're the last guy, chances are there's lawyers doing the same thing to you.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#370

Post by jedberg »

You can tell who here has worked for a large American company and who hasn't.

If you've ever worked for a large American company, you know that nothing you do on company equipment or with a service the company pays for is ever private, and you should never assume it is.

I'll be honest, I always thought Slack DMs were viewable by the admin. As a Slack admin myself, I always assumed I had that ability. Never used so, I never found out I was wrong, but just always assumed it was there.

To me this is a no-op: Anyone who worked for a large American company should have assumed that this ability was always there or could be there in the future, or at the very least, your employer could have always required you to log in and show them your DMs.

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