4 ms·

It's a business tool, paid for by the employer. You shouldn't expect anything you do on there to remain private, just like you should expect your company mailbo

It's a business tool, paid for by the employer. You shouldn't expect anything you do on there to remain private, just like you should expect your company mailbox to be private.

etjossem 12y ago
To be fair, the features in question are called "private groups" and "direct messages." There's bound to be some expectation that they are private and/or one-to-one.
- apetresc 12y ago
  Only for the technically naive. Anyone who understands that e-mailing a colleague within your company's email server can be read by someone with the appropriate admin privileges, will also understand that a "direct message" on Slack is still being stored on Slack servers, not going P2P.
- varikin 12y ago
  Would you expect emails via company mail servers from yourself to a coworker to be private? How about chats using some intranet based tool like MS Lync? Private and direct messages within a company should be thought of as not involving your coworkers, but IT and legal a might be monitoring.
  - etjossem 12y ago
    You, apetresc, and I are all unusual users - we're thinking about this in terms of network connections. Our first instinct is to figure out which parties in the chain could have stored a copy of the message. The typical user will probably just rely on clues like "private" or "direct" and make assumptions from there. The privacy level of these features can and will be misinterpreted. Read a few legal cases where employee communications are exhibited; you'd be surprised what people say on internal platforms.
    - goatforce5 12y ago
      Any employee is a fool for thinking making permanent records of things using company resources will remain private. You're on holiday or otherwise unavailable and someone needs some details for some obscure project you're working on? Crack open their email! Those accounts and everything else belong to your employer and if it suits their purposes to go poking around your email or IMs, then they will.
  - danielweber 12y ago
    Legally, I like the fact that my employer can pull up all my communications. If there are any HR-level disputes between employees, just pull up the record and look. This isn't necessarily what I want from a personal service, though.

It's a business tool, paid for by the employer. You shouldn't expect anything you do on there to remain private, just like you should expect your company mailbox to be private.

etjossem 12y ago

To be fair, the features in question are called "private groups" and "direct messages." There's bound to be some expectation that they are private and/or one-to-one.

apetresc 12y ago
Only for the technically naive. Anyone who understands that e-mailing a colleague within your company's email server can be read by someone with the appropriate admin privileges, will also understand that a "direct message" on Slack is still being stored on Slack servers, not going P2P.
varikin 12y ago
Would you expect emails via company mail servers from yourself to a coworker to be private? How about chats using some intranet based tool like MS Lync? Private and direct messages within a company should be thought of as not involving your coworkers, but IT and legal a might be monitoring.
- etjossem 12y ago
  You, apetresc, and I are all unusual users - we're thinking about this in terms of network connections. Our first instinct is to figure out which parties in the chain could have stored a copy of the message. The typical user will probably just rely on clues like "private" or "direct" and make assumptions from there. The privacy level of these features can and will be misinterpreted. Read a few legal cases where employee communications are exhibited; you'd be surprised what people say on internal platforms.
  - goatforce5 12y ago
    Any employee is a fool for thinking making permanent records of things using company resources will remain private. You're on holiday or otherwise unavailable and someone needs some details for some obscure project you're working on? Crack open their email! Those accounts and everything else belong to your employer and if it suits their purposes to go poking around your email or IMs, then they will.
- danielweber 12y ago
  Legally, I like the fact that my employer can pull up all my communications. If there are any HR-level disputes between employees, just pull up the record and look. This isn't necessarily what I want from a personal service, though.