Privacy policy
Effective: 5th July 2023
This Privacy Policy describes how Slack collects, uses and discloses information associated with an identified or identifiable individual (referred to in this Privacy Policy as ‘Personal Data’) and what choices you have around this activity. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
When we refer to ‘Slack’, we mean Slack Technologies, LLC or Slack Technologies Limited, as explained in more detail in the ‘Identifying the data controller and processor’ section below.
Applicability of this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy applies to Slack’s online workplace productivity tools and platform, including the associated Slack mobile and desktop applications (collectively, the ‘Services’), Slack.com and other Slack websites (collectively, the ‘Websites’) and other interactions (e.g. customer service enquiries, user conferences, etc.) that you may have with Slack. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, then do not access or use the Services, Websites or any other aspect of Slack’s business. For the avoidance of doubt, this is the only privacy policy that applies to Slack.
This Privacy Policy does not apply to any third-party applications or software that integrate with the Services through the Slack platform (‘Third-Party Services’), or any other third-party products, services or businesses who will provide their services under their own terms of service and privacy policy. In addition, a separate agreement governs delivery, access and use of the Services (the ‘Customer Agreement’), including the processing of data such as messages, files or other content submitted through Services accounts (collectively, ‘Customer Data’). The organisation (e.g. your employer or another entity or person) that entered into the Customer Agreement (the ‘Customer’) controls its instance of the Services (its ‘Workspace’) and any associated Customer Data. If you have any questions about specific Workspace settings and privacy practices, please contact the Customer whose Workspace you use. If you have an account, you can check http://slack.com/account/team for the contact information of your workspace owner(s) and administrator(s). If you have received an invitation to join a Workspace but have not yet created an account, you should request assistance from the Customer that sent the invitation.
California notice of collection of personal information: We collect the information described below under ‘Information we collect and receive’ for the business and commercial purposes described below under ‘Information use’. To learn more about exercising your California privacy rights, please review the ‘California privacy rights’ section below.
Information we collect and receive
Slack will collect and receive information through operating the Services and Websites, and through other interactions with Slack. Such information will include Customer Data and other information and data (‘Other Information’) in a variety of ways:
Customer Data. Customers or individuals granted access to a Workspace by a Customer (‘Authorised Users’) routinely submit Customer Data (such as messages, files or other content submitted through Services accounts) to Slack when using the Services.
Other Information. Slack also collects, generates and/or receives the following categories of Other Information:
Workspace and account information: To create or update a Workspace account, you or our Customer (e.g. your employer) supply Slack with an email address, phone number, password, domain and/or other account set-up details (for more detail on Workspace creation, click here. In addition, Customers that purchase a paid version of the Services provide Slack (or its payment processors) with billing details such as credit card information, banking information and/or a billing address.
Usage information:
Services metadata. When an Authorised User interacts with the Services, metadata is generated that provides additional context about the way that an Authorised User uses the Services. For example, Slack logs the Workspaces, channels, people, features, content and links that you view or interact with, the types of files shared and what Third-Party Services are used (if any).
Log data. As with most websites and technology services delivered over the Internet, our servers automatically collect information when you access or use our Websites or Services and record it in log files. This log data may include your Internet Protocol (IP) address, the address of the web page that you visited before using the Website or Services, browser type and settings, the date and time that the Services were used, information about browser configuration and plugins, and your language preferences.
Device information. Slack collects information about devices accessing the Services, including type of device, what operating system is used, device settings, application IDs, unique device identifiers and crash data. Whether we collect some or all of this Other Information often depends on the type of device used and its settings.
Location information. We receive information from you, our Customers and other third parties that helps us to approximate your location. We may, for example, use a business address submitted by your employer (who is our Customer) or an IP address received from your browser or device to determine approximate location to assist with localisation or for security purposes.
Cookie information: Slack uses a variety of cookies and similar technologies in our Websites and Services to help us collect Other Information. For more details about how we use these technologies, and your opt-out controls and other options, please visit our Cookie policy.
Third-Party Services information: A Customer can choose to permit or restrict Third-Party Services for its Workspace and Slack can receive personal data from such Third-Party Services. Typically, Third-Party Services are software that integrate with our Services, and a Customer can permit its Authorised Users to enable and disable these integrations for its Workspace (for more details on third-party application management, settings and permissions, click here). Slack may also develop and offer Slack applications that connect the Services with a Third-Party Service. Once enabled, the provider of a Third-Party Service may share certain information with Slack. For example, if a cloud storage application that you are using is enabled to permit files to be imported to a Workspace, we may receive the user name and email address of Authorised Users, along with additional information that the application makes available to Slack to facilitate the integration. Authorised Users should check the privacy settings and notices in these Third-Party Services to understand what data may be disclosed to Slack. When a Third-Party Service is enabled, Slack is authorised to connect and access Other Information made available to Slack in accordance with our agreement with the provider of the Third-Party Service and any permission(s) granted by our Customer (including by its Authorised User(s)). Examples of information which Slack may receive in this manner include whether you successfully created a new account or interacted with a third-party application in a way that is attributable to Slack usage activity. We do not, however, receive or store passwords for any of these Third-Party Services when connecting them to the Services. For more information on Slack’s interaction with Third-Party Services, click here.
Contact information: In accordance with the consent process provided by your device or other third-party API, any contact information that an Authorised User chooses to import (such as importing an address book to find colleagues and Slack Connect contacts or calendar from a device or API), forward or upload to the Services (for example, when sending emails to the Services) is collected when using the Services.
Third-party data: Slack may receive data about organisations, industries, lists of companies that are customers, website visitors, marketing campaigns and other matters related to our business from parent corporation(s), affiliates and subsidiaries, our partners or others that we use to make our own information better or more useful. This data may be combined with Other Information that we collect and might include aggregate-level data, such as which IP addresses correspond to postcodes or countries. Or it might be more specific: for example, how well an online marketing or email campaign performed.
Audio and video metadata: Slack may receive, capture and store metadata derived from your use of features such as Slack huddles or clips, and additional related data such as data regarding the date and time of your Slack huddle and the Authorised User that you connected with.
Additional information provided to Slack: We also receive Other Information when submitted to our Websites or in other ways, such as responses or opinions that you provide if you participate in a focus group, contest, activity or event, feedback that you provide about our products or services, information that you provide if you apply for a job with Slack, enrol in a certification programme or other educational programme hosted by Slack or a vendor, request support, interact with our social media accounts or otherwise communicate with Slack.
Generally, no one is under a statutory or contractual obligation to provide any Customer Data or Other Information (collectively “Information”). However, certain Information is collected automatically and if some Information, such as Workspace setup details, is not provided, we may be unable to provide the Services.
How we process your information and our legal bases for doing so
Customer Data will be used by Slack in accordance with a Customer’s instructions, including to provide the Services, any applicable terms in the Customer Agreement, a Customer’s use of Services functionality and as required by applicable law. Slack is a processor of Customer Data and the Customer is the controller. The Customer may, for example, use the Services to grant and remove access to a Workspace, assign roles and configure settings, access, modify, export, share and remove Customer Data, and otherwise apply its policies to the Services.
Slack uses Other Information to operate our Services, Websites and business. More specifically, Slack uses Other Information for the following purposes:
Compliance with a legal obligation:
Slack processes Other Information when we comply with a legal obligation including, for example, to access, preserve or disclose certain information if there is a valid legal request from a regulator, law enforcement or others. For example, a search warrant or production order from law enforcement to provide information in relation to an investigation, such as your profile picture or IP address.
We use Workspace and account information, usage information, cookie information, Third-Party Services information, contact information, third-party data, audio and video metadata, and additional information provided to Slack for compliance with a legal obligation.
Legitimate interests:
We rely on our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party where they are not outweighed by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms (‘legitimate interests’).
We use Workspace and account information, usage information, cookie information, Third-Party Services information, contact information, third-party data, audio and video metadata, and additional information provided to Slack for the following legitimate interests:
To provide, update, maintain and protect our Services, Websites and business.
This includes the use of Other Information to support delivery of the Services under a Customer Agreement, prevent or address service errors, security or technical issues, analyse and monitor usage, trends and other activities, or at an Authorised User’s request.
It is in our and your interests to provide, update, maintain and protect our Services, Websites and business.
To develop and provide search, learning and productivity tools and additional features.
Slack tries to make the Services as useful as possible for specific Workspaces and Authorised Users. For example, we may:
improve search functionality by using Other Information to help determine and rank the relevance of content, channels or expertise to an Authorised User;
make Services or Third-Party Service suggestions based on historical use and predictive models;
identify organisational trends and insights;
customise a Services experience; or
create new productivity features and products.
It is in our interest and in the interest of Customers and Authorised Users to continuously improve and develop the customer support that we provide.
To investigate and help prevent security issues and abuse.
We may use a variety of tools such as device fingerprinting to prevent issues and abuse. We may process, including in an automated fashion, Other Information to better understand how Slack is used or to prevent spam or abuse.
It is in our interest to keep the Services secure and to detect, prevent and address abuse (such as spam) and to investigate and take action in respect of suspicious activity on the Services.
To aggregate or de-identify information.
In some cases, we aggregate or de-identify information that we have associated with you and use the resulting information, for example, to improve the Services.
It is in our interest to research and improve the Services;
It is in the interests of Customers and Authorised Users to practice data minimisation and privacy by design in respect of their information.
Share information with others, including law enforcement, and to respond to legal requests.
It is in our interest and the interest of the general public to prevent and address fraud, unauthorised use of Slack, violations of our terms or other harmful or illegal activity; to protect ourselves, our users or others, including as part of investigations or regulatory inquiries; or to prevent death or imminent bodily harm.
Transfer, store or process your information outside the European Economic Area.
As the Websites and Services operate globally, with Customers around the world, we need to share information that we collect globally. We carry out necessary transfers outside the European Economic Area, including to Australia, Canada, Japan, India, South Korea and the United States, to provide, update, maintain and protect our Services, Websites and business.
For more information, review the ‘International data transfers’ section below.
It is in our and your interests to provide, update, maintain and protect our Services, Websites and business.
We use Workspace and account information, Third-Party Services information, third-party data and additional information provided to Slack for the following legitimate interests:
To communicate with you by responding to your requests, comments and questions.
If you contact us, we may use your Other Information to respond.
It is in our, our Customers’ and Authorised Users’ interests to facilitate communication (for example to answer questions from Customers).
To send service emails and other communications.
For example, we may:
send you service, technical and other administrative emails, messages and other types of communications; or
contact you to inform you about changes in our Services, our Services offerings and important Services-related notices, such as security and fraud notices. These communications are considered part of the Services, and you may not opt out of them. It is in our Customers’ and Authorised Users’ interests to address service-related issues.
We use Workspace and account information and usage information for the following legitimate interests:
For billing, account management and other administrative matters.
Slack may need to contact you for invoicing, account management and similar reasons and we use account data to administer accounts and keep track of billing and payments.
It is in our interest to facilitate the effective provision and administration of the Websites and Services.
We use Workspace and account information, usage information, cookie information, Third-Party Services information, third-party data and additional information provided to Slack for the following legitimate interests:
To send marketing emails and other communications.
We sometimes send emails about new product features, promotional communications or other news about Slack. These are marketing messages, so you can control whether you receive them. If you have additional questions about a message that you have received from Slack, please get in touch through the contact mechanisms described below.
It is in our interest to promote the Websites and Services and send our direct marketing.