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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

#341

Post by iamleppert »

Part of the reason why Slack has been so successful vs. other corporate messaging solutions is that it encourages employees to bring their “whole self” to work.

It’s perhaps the most important thing at work to feel like you can communicate easily and without fear of reprisal from managers and in my opinion had a lot to do with my extensive use of Slack.

It felt like, for the first time, the communications platform wasn’t “owned” by the strict hierarchy of the company. I created my own channels, and felt no fear when I communicated with co-workers. I wasn’t doing anything “wrong” ever in my communications, but, let’s face it: there are things that you don’t want your boss to know, especially if like the majority of people, you’re working for a bad boss that has to be “managed” himself.

If Slack continues in this manner, while it may make sense from a liability and business perspective, employees aren’t going to trust the platform anymore the first time a manager reads a private conversation and uses it against someone. And generally I’ve found it’s not hard to figure out you’re being spied upon.

I’m not sure what the solution is, but definitely if Slack allows managers private access (without a court order or similar serious situation where such access would be warranted), they can no longer claim they want employees to “bring their whole self” to work anymore.

Oh well. It was nice while it lasted.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#343

Post by Cacti »

martimarkov wrote: post #312
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.

Do you think you will go over every single DM to see if your employees are doing this? That's insane amount of time wasted. How do you think you will capture all of that? AI? Good luck. We had a system in my previous job that highlighted conversations which had keywords and we just abused it by mentioning those keywords constanly in "relevant" contexts. And if you really wanted to get the password (one of the monitor…

You're missing the point. You don't actively monitor it, you record it so that later you can go back and review those conversations in the event you are required to by law. I don't know where you've worked, but this standard in any sizable company, or any involved in particular industries, and is not that difficult to arrange. There are specific legal requirements to keep records of certain types around for 2, 5, 10+ years, whether it's email, chat, file servers, etc. And yes, that includes Slack.

Why do you think Slack is any different than the systems that we have in place already? What makes Slack any different from email? Answer: nothing.

And if Slack didn't do this, they'd eventually find themselves filtered out of nearly every corporate network due to the inherent legal risk.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#344

Post by timblair »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #9
larrik wrote: post #2

Previously, you could only see employee DMs if you turned on Compliance Exports, at which point you could download all of them going forward . Now it sounds like everything you've ever written could be downloaded at any time without notice. So, all of those communications you had with co-workers based on the promise they would be private until you were notified future ones wouldn't be anymore? Now it's ALL available…

why presumably due to GDPR? I would think it was a possible GDPR problem for them in the future. Specifically, you wrote it based on expectation it was private and now it is not, when did you give permission for sharing that data?

An employee's use of a company-provided communication channel like Slack isn't covered by GDPR, but the company is liable for the content that's stored in their Slack account. Under GDPR, I, as a customer of Company X, have a right to know about and request a copy of any data stored about me by that company, which includes Slack conversations, in both open and "private" channels. GDPR also applies retroactively, so the old compliance export process wouldn't cover it.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#345

Post by Spoom »

keeler wrote: post #217

Use slack-cleaner[1] to nuke messages you've sent. You need to generate a legacy token[2]. [1] https://github.com/kfei/slack-cleaner [2] https://api.slack.com/custom-integrations/legacy-tokens

I suspect that if they allow admins to download DMs, they also probably soft-delete messages, so deleted messages would still show up in the exports. Can anyone confirm?

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#346

Post by Piskvorrr »

vidarh wrote: post #327
Piskvorrr wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well...most work contracts I've signed said something like "working here is not mandatory and we may need access to the mailbox (which we're providing to you for your work duties), such access cases are logged and externally audited. Sign here to agree, take that door to disagree." As long as this is agreed beforehand, I'm not aware of a European state banning it - this is somewhat different from "let's go digging ar…

In most of Europe what the employment contract says must be compared to local law - it varies greatly how many rights you are able to contract away in an employment contract. E.g. while employment contracts in the UK are often fairly long, employment contracts in Norway can be as short as a couple of paragraphs, as almost all the terms are regulated and are costly and/or difficult to deviate from for most roles and m…

True. I have misread "this is illegal in Europe" as "anywhere in Europe" rather than "in Europe there exist such jurisdictions".

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#347

Post by tallanvor »

marvin wrote: post #259
ChuckMcM wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Certainly illegal in Norway. Hell, I've heard stories of corporate networks up here that MITM all their computers for security monitoring, and where the admins routinely see evidence of searches for sketchy pornography, but can't legally do anything because this kind of surveillance of your employees is illegal.

This isn't exactly true. Employees do have a higher right of privacy even when using company resources than they do in the US, but monitoring is allowed within certain parameters, and that can include searching email or other "private" storage spaces.

Companies must still be able to comply with eDiscovery and data preservation requests from various police agencies (such as Økokrim), and these may be performed without informing individuals that it is happening.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#348

Post by eeZah7Ux »

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…

No. Different EU countries have different laws and many different gray areas.

Intercepting messages on a medium that is clearly meant to be private is usually illegal.

Re: Guide to Slack import and export tools

#349

Post by moduspol »

ben509 wrote: post #150
nkcmr wrote: post #55

I have never really understood the notion of needing communication privacy in the workplace. To be honest, without having seen this story, I would have assumed this was a feature of Slack already! I can't remember where/when I heard this advice but it seems relevant and helpful for this matter: "Write/speak all communication in the workplace as if the CEO themselves were CCd on the email." It has served me well.

Work is stressful and communication can reach straight into your brain. People go through periods where they're not handling stress very well, and they will often express ideas that, divorced from the context of the stress and bad feelings they have at that point, don't reflect what they really believe or intend to say in public.

I think that part's easy to understand. The tougher part is why one would put that communication in text, enter it into a company-provided system, and then be offended / dumbfounded when it's accessed by one's superiors at that company.

We all get stressed sometimes, but we don't all do that.

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