Transparency report
At Slack, we care deeply about maintaining the trust of our customers, as well as being as transparent as possible about government and third-party requests for Customer data. As a part of this commitment, we publish periodic reports about requests for data by law enforcement and governmental entities. The latest report is below and covers all such requests from 1st January – 31st December 2019. More information about our policies and practices with respect to data (including definitions of terms not defined herein) can be found in the Slack terms of service, privacy policy, security practices, data request policy and data request overview.
In addition to our commitment to trust and transparency, we also believe in the importance of fundamental privacy, protection of user data, constitutional guardrails and judicial oversight of government data collection and surveillance.
We abide by the following guiding principles:
- We are committed to maintaining Customer privacy and confidentiality
- All legal process is carefully reviewed. Slack rejects or challenges any requests that have no legal basis or are unclear, overbroad or otherwise inappropriate.
- Slack construes legal process as narrowly as possible.
- Wherever possible we encourage Customers and third parties to obtain relevant data without our intervention
Requests for information through legal process
| Reporting period | Type of request | Number of requests | Content data and non-content data disclosed | Only non-content data disclosed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | ||||
| 1st January – 31st December 2019 | Search warrants | 9 | 9 | 0 |
| Court orders | 7 | 0 | 5 | |
| Subpoenas | 20 | 0 | 18 | |
| National security requests | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Civil subpoenas | 30 | 0 | 1 | |
| Non-US entities | ||||
| Foreign requests pursuant to an MLAT | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
Definitions
“Civil subpoena” A demand for information made pursuant to civil litigation. Slack is prohibited from providing content in response to a civil request unless there is a valid, lawful exception, such as consent.
“Content data” Includes user-generated data, for example public and private messages, posts, files and DMs.
“MLAT” A mutual legal assistance treaty. Slack requires that a foreign government use appropriate international law process, such as through an MLAT, to obtain user data stored by Slack in the US.
“National security requests” A national security letter issued under 18 USC § 2709, a court order issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or any other classified request for user information issued in the US.
“Non-content data” Basic account information (such as name and email address, registration information, login history and billing information) and other non-content metadata (such as the date, time and sender/recipient of messages or files).
“Search warrant” An order issued by a judge or magistrate upon a finding of probable cause. A search warrant is required to obtain the content of communications.
“Law enforcement subpoena” A compulsory demand issued by a governmental entity for the production of documents or testimony in a criminal case (such as grand jury subpoenas or administrative subpoenas)
Previous versions of this report can be found in our archives.
Updated 21 January 2020.