Are Slack DMs Private?

Slack is one of the most popular messaging platforms, mostly used for business communication. Companies love it because it’s easy to send messages and upload files. The platform is straightforward and makes communication easier.

As you probably know, it’s possible to have both public and private conversations. Conversations of the former type happen via various channels where the whole team or selected team members participate. Users can also send private messages to one another if they wish to share something only with that person.

But are Slack DMs entirely private? We’ll try to explain in this article.

Who Can See My DMs?

Unfortunately, Slack DMs aren’t entirely private, and you shouldn’t use them to send confidential information. However, it doesn’t mean that anyone can access your messages. It’s not easy to access someone’s DMs, and it requires various permissions.

Your employer can have access to your DMs, but it requires more than one click. They should have a good reason for that, and they need to contact Slack support service and ask for permission. We’ll explain the process in more detail later.

Also, law enforcement agencies can access your DMs, of course, only in exceptional circumstances. There’ve already been cases when Slack texts were used as evidence in various lawsuits.

Why Should My Boss Want to See My DMs?

Sometimes, a company has to preserve information to be able to present it if a lawsuit occurs. That means that your employer might be keeping your data but only because they have to.

The other situation when the company might need your data is during an internal investigation or an alleged case of bullying. They need some evidence. That’s not a new thing as most companies already had the right to preserve their employees’ e-mails.

Some people might think that the company keeps its data to be able to spy on them, but that’s usually not the case. Your managers probably don’t have time to go through your DMs, and as we already said, it’s not that easy to access them.

How to See Someone’s DMs?

As an employee, you probably won’t be able to access other persons’ DMs. And that’s good because it means that they won’t be able to access your DMs either. Imagine what would happen if all of us could read each other’s private messages. We soon wouldn’t need private messages at all.

There are various ways to ask for permission to see DMs. If your company is using Free or Standard Slack, your employer will have to send a request to the Slack team. They have to explain the situation in the company and their potential concerns. Only then will they be able to ask to see your private messages.

Slack can then decide whether the request is appropriate or not. Slack usually doesn’t give this permission if they haven’t obtained the employee’s consent first. The only exception to this rule is a situation when the company presents evidence that you’re in the middle of a legal process.

However, if your company is using some of the more expensive plans, such as the Enterprise Grid, things might be different. These plans are connected with third-party apps that allow you to store messages on their servers. That still doesn’t mean that they can access them whenever they want. Some regulations have to be respected.

Final Word

This topic is more complicated than it seems because Slack is not the one that decides who’ll have access to your data. Like every other app, Slack abides by laws that vary from country to country. If you want to know more about this topic, we suggest you learn more about rules and regulations related to internet privacy.

Do you and your team use Slack? Have you ever had an unpleasant situation that threatened your privacy? We certainly hope that you didn’t and that you enjoy using the platform. Feel free to share your impressions and experiences in the comments section below.