Live data from Hacker News

Guide to Slack import and export tools

get.slack.help

291–300 of 529 posts

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#291

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…

It would make a lot more sense to take your unfiltered and undiplomatic private conversation to a nearby private establishment. If you are remote and can not do this I would simply use a not supplied by work phone. This is for your protection and whoever you bring along to vent. There have been at least two occurrences in my career which have forced my hand on employee communication and in both cases, a blanket refusal was not an option. If you don't want to say something publically don't assume anything your company pays for is private until our society changes its views on where the expectation of privacy exists.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#292

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 would quit a job that treated me as a child which must be supervised in such a manner.

Agreed this can lead to abuse. But investigating employee behavior while using employer provided communication platforms doesn't immediately fall under abuse. No more than police subpoenaing phone records during a criminal investigation would.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#293
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You shouldn't assume they're private just because they're encrypted. Employers can and will install SSL certs on your desktop machine so that they can decrypt and scan/archive everything at the gateway. This is standard practice in financial companies, and is easily done anywhere. They can also install screen capture and key logging software if they want, but that's less common and without disclosure is a lot shadier…

`whyever` said _end-to-end_ encrypted, presumably meaning "between the intended recipient and I," not "between a middleman and I." Of course, you also need to trust your hardware.

Then of course, if the hardware is provided by the employer...the Second and Third Rule is already broken, game over.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#295

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.…

I mean, how do you think your email is handled? Your internet traffic? This stuff has been monitored and recorded by companies for decades, why would Slack be any different?

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#296
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but your chosen solution is totalitarian surveillance in the workplace because an intern got offended? Sigh Totalitarianism is a socio-political paradigm, not a stand-in word to describe things you think constitute surveillance in the context of a business. Companies require the capability to maintain auditable records of employee activity on the information channels they own and manage. Your company is not recordi…

I think the bigger problem that the OP pointed at is that whatever adjectives you attach to this, surveillance is almost always the wrong way to change behavior, unless your desired outcome is to make everyone suspicious of everyone else. What's stopping these folks from creating an out-of-company channel to do the bullying and attacking in coordination via that means, or tricking the victim into joining them in the…

It doesn't make sense to refuse solutions that solve part of the problem, or that make the problem more manageable. Perfect is the enemy of good.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#297
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are assuming that harassment was direct, sending messages to the accusers. My impression is that this was a group chatting privately about the accusers either making fun of them or coordinating actions. While this can be done through other channels (in person or private cellphone) allowing it on corporate infrastructure without monitoring is not acceptable.

If harassers, as you have mentioned, can simply switch to another channel, then what problem exactly is this measure trying to solve? I'm honestly confused.

Now the harassers are doing more and more to harass and leaving more evidence behind. And you have a more compelling case, "they were on Slack, they were on email, they were texting, they set up their own ICQ server..."

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#298

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.

The company should not provide funding for a channel used to harass people.

You're being a shit if you trivialize harassment in the workplace, but you are being an idiot if you are paying for the tools used to hide it.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#300
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If harassers, as you have mentioned, can simply switch to another channel, then what problem exactly is this measure trying to solve? I'm honestly confused.

It increases the friction of harrassment

No it doesn't. It literally just removes liability from the corporation.

If you've ever dealt with toxic work relationships, you know that stopping harassment isn't going to come down to how you are allowed to pass notes.

Post reply on HN