Slack Careers Privacy Notice | Archive | Legal

Last Updated: November 9, 2020

As part of our application and recruitment process, Slack Technologies, LLC. (“Slack”) will need to collect certain personal data about you and to use and disclose it during the course of the recruitment process. Slack takes the proper handling of your personal data seriously. The purpose of this Privacy policy (“Policy”) is to provide candidates (both “you” or “your”) with information about how Slack collects, uses, stores, discloses, transfers across borders and otherwise processes your personal data.

This Privacy Policy addresses the following topics:

Scope of this Policy
Identification of the data controller
Your consent
Types of personal data we collect
How we use your personal data
How we share your personal data
Safeguards for, and retention of, your personal data
Cross-border transfers of your personal data
How can you update your personal data and exercise your rights?
Changes to this Policy
U.S. equal employment opportunity (EEO) statement
Contact us

For purposes of this Policy, personal data is information which relates to you and which identifies you or is capable of identifying you as an individual. This information may be provided to us by you, generated as a result of being recruited by or applying to work at Slack or provided to us by other sources, such as prior employers or pre-employment screening providers,

1. Scope of this Policy

This Policy applies to any personal data which you submit (a) through the Careers page of this website (the “Site”) (https://slack.com/careers) as part of an application for employment at any of Slack’s global offices, and (b) at any time during the job application process. This Policy also covers personal data you may submit as part of a general inquiry related to employment opportunities with Slack (directly to someone at Slack or via this Site) or which you might provide to Slack at a recruiting event. This Policy does not apply to information you submit through any other site or service that we own or operate. Our other sites have their own privacy policies.

2. Identification of the data controller

Slack Technologies, LLC., and if different, the Slack entity with which you are seeking employment or to which you otherwise seek to provide services, are data controllers of your personal data. (“Slack”, “we”, “us” or “our”). A full list of Slack entities is available at https://slack.com/affiliates.

By agreeing to the terms of this Policy, you consent to the collection, use, disclosure, transfer across borders and other processing of your personal data as described below. Before you agree to the terms of this Policy by clicking “Submit Application” at the end of the online job application, please read this Policy carefully. Once you agree, your consent will continue to apply to our collection, use, disclosure, cross-border transfer and other processing of your personal information unless you withdraw your consent by contacting us at privacy@slack.com. You may withdraw your consent at any time. Please understand that if you do not consent, or if you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to consider your application for employment.

4. Types of personal data we collect

In order to manage your application or inquiry and in furtherance of our business interest in recruiting great people into our teams, we need to collect certain personal data about you.

We collect your personal data, including, but not limited to, the following:

Personal details and contact information: This may include information such as name, preferred pronouns, contact information (e.g., home address, telephone number and personal email address).
Recruitment and application details, education and training information: This may include information such as information contained in letters of application and CVs, previous employment background and references, technical skills, educational background, professional qualifications and registrations, training courses attended, language capabilities and other relevant skills, nationality and right to work.
Assessment details: If we ask you to attend an interview (either in person or by telephone or video), we may generate information about you such as assessments or interview notes.
Results of background checks: If we make a conditional offer of employment, we will perform a background check as permitted by applicable local law in order to protect the legitimate business interests of Slack, our employees, customers and users. We will consider the results of these checks as permitted by local laws.
Sensitive Personal Information: When you apply for a position in the United States, or indicate the U.S. as a preferred location when registering your profile, you will have the opportunity to provide information about your gender, ethnic origin and/or veteran status in order for us to conduct equal opportunity monitoring. The provision of this information is entirely voluntary. If you decline to provide this information, your application(s) will not be affected in any way. If you do choose to provide this information, you consent to our using it for equal opportunity monitoring purposes. This information will be held and stored anonymously and will not be used to evaluate your application for employment.

Except as described above, we will not request or otherwise collect information about your health, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade-union membership, or sexual orientation or your genetic information or biometric information through the on-line application or during the application process unless the law, as an exception, requires us to do so. We, or a third-party background check company under direction, may check criminal history records for information about convictions, but only if and to the extent permitted by applicable law.

Please review our Cookies Policy (https://slack.com/cookie-policy) to learn more about the information that we collect about you automatically using cookies when you visit the Site.

5. How we use your personal data

We use your personal data for the purpose of answering queries you’ve submitted to Slack, and managing the various tasks associated with processing applications and assessing the suitability of candidates for employment with Slack. We may use your personal information to conduct a background check on you but only after extending a conditional offer of employment. We will retain your personal data for recordkeeping purposes. In addition, if you are hired, Slack will maintain your personal data and use it to administer the employment relationship. Slack will not use your personal information to engage in automated decision-making.

If you are not hired for the position for which you initially apply, we may use your personal data to consider you for future job openings. We also may use your personal data to contact you to find out whether you are interested in applying for new job openings.

Lawful basis for processing your personal data:

Consent: Where applicable data protection law requires a lawful basis for collecting, using, disclosing, transferring across borders and otherwise processing your personal data, the Company relies on your consent to do so unless another lawful ground for processing your personal data is available.
Legitimate Interests: Collecting and processing the above categories of personal data is also necessary for Slack to pursue its legitimate business interests in hiring suitable candidates and seeking information from previous employers and references concerning candidates’ work performance and reliability. It is also necessary to pursue Slack’s legitimate interests in maintaining a talented workforce as well as a talent pool, and that allows Slack to consider you for future suitable roles.
Performance Of An Agreement With You: For positions that are subject to a written employment agreement, we will collect and process your personal data (a) to take steps, at your request, before entering into the employment agreement, and (b) to fulfil our responsibilities under the employment agreement.
Compliance With Laws: We also use the information to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements if necessary. For example, if we make a conditional offer of employment, we may be required to confirm the identity of our personnel and their right to work in a particular country under immigration and employment rules.

When collecting your personal data is mandatory (either because of applicable law or in accordance with a contractual requirement), this will be stated at the time of collection of the personal data. If you choose not to provide the mandatorily required personal data, we might not be able to consider your application for employment.

Slack will not sell, lease, or license your personal data to any third party. Where necessary, and in accordance with the purposes set out in this Policy, your personal data will be shared internally with individuals involved in the hiring process and with other Slack group affiliates. We also will share your personal data with third-party service providers that support the recruitment process. These will include, for example, service providers who provide pre-employment screening services to us and other third party service providers who provide services on our behalf such as recruiters and our candidate tracking software providers. When sharing information with third parties Slack will ensure that they are subject to obligations consistent with this Policy

We may also share your personal data when required by law, court orders, legal process, or a discovery request in civil litigation, or if we believe that your actions violate applicable law, or threaten the rights, property, or safety of our Company, or others. Slack will make such disclosures only as permitted by applicable data protection laws.

When you use third-party apps, websites or other products integrated with our systems to apply for a role, they may collect information about you subject to their own terms and privacy policies.

7. Safeguards for, and retention of, your personal data

Slack maintains appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, or alteration, as well as unauthorised access, use or disclosure. The information you provide will be held securely by us and/or our data processors whether the personal data is in electronic or physical format.

Your submissions of information to our secure server are protected by Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (“HTTPS”) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) technology, utilized by many popular browsers to safeguard transmissions. This technology allows us to use encryption tools to protect information transmitted between your computer and our server. After we have received your information, access to it is limited to employees with a need to know.

If you are hired or retained, we will retain your personal data as part of your employee file for the duration of your employment at Slack and for as long as permitted or required by law thereafter to comply with our legal obligations, to resolve disputes and to enforce our agreements.

If you are not hired or retained, or elect to withdraw or decline our offer, we will retain your personal data for one year unless (a) a longer or shorter retention period is required by applicable law, or (b) you consent to our maintaining your personal data, so we can keep you in mind for future recruitment.

We also retain this information for other reasons, including in case we face a legal challenge in respect of a recruitment decision and to help us better understand, analyse and improve our recruitment processes.

If you do want us to retain your information for consideration for other roles, or want us to update it, please contact privacy@slack.com. Please note, however, that we may retain some information if required by law or as necessary to protect ourselves from legal claims.

8. Cross-Border transfers of your personal data

Slack is a global business. If you are applying for a position with us from outside the United States (“U.S.”), the personal data that we collect about you in the recruitment process will be transferred to, and stored on, our servers, located in the U.S., and on servers maintained by our recruitment service providers in the U.S.. Authorized employees at Slack locations in the U.S. and/or affiliated companies at locations outside the U.S. may have access to your personal data as part of the recruitment process. These employees may use and disclose your personal data only for recruitment purposes, and must handle that information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection laws and guidance. The data protection laws where these companies are located may be less stringent than the laws of your home country. Contact details of the Slack group companies that may access your personal information can be found here: https://slack.com/affiliates.

We generally rely on your consent for the international data transfers described above. If you reside in the European Union (EU), we will rely on an adequacy determination by the European Commission, where applicable. The European Commission has determined that the data protection laws Japan, where a Slack affiliate is located, provides an adequate level of protection for personal data. The European Commission has not issued an adequacy determination for the United States or other countries where Slack affiliates are located. For transfers of EU personal data to the United States and other countries not subject to an adequacy determination, we have implemented Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs), approved by the European Commission, to provide an adequate level of protection for your personal data. You can obtain a copy of the SCCs from the European Commission website: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/international-dimension-data-protection/standard-contractual-clauses-scc_en.

For Australian residents If you consent to the transfer of your personal data, subsection 8.1 of the Australian Privacy Principles will not apply to the transfer. Subsection 8.1 would otherwise require Slack to take such steps as are reasonable in the circumstances to ensure that parent corporation and affiliated corporations do not breach the Australian Privacy Principles (other than Australian Privacy Principle 1) in relation to your personal data.

9. How can you update your personal data and exercise your rights?

Please make sure that your personal data is accurate and up to date and let us know of changes in a timely manner.

Depending on applicable law you may inquire about the personal data we maintain about you and exercise your rights to access, correct, export, and delete your personal data. You may also have a right to obtain a copy of your information in an easily accessible format. In certain circumstances, you may also request us to transfer some of your personal data to third parties. In addition, when we process your personal data based on our legitimate interests (as set out above) or if you’ve previously given us your consent to process your personal data, you may have a right to object to our processing of your personal data or withdraw or restrict your consent at any time.

To the extent Slack relies on your consent to process your personal data, you may use the contact information below, at any time, to withdraw your consent. Any withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal, and Slack will continue to retain the information that you provided us before you withdrew your consent for as long as allowed or required by applicable law. Please understand that if you withdraw your consent, Slack may not be able to consider your application for employment unless other lawful grounds for processing your personal data apply.

If you reside in the European Union (“EU”), you can find below additional information concerning your rights under applicable data protection law:

More on the right to data portability: Subject to certain limitations, the right to data portability allows you to obtain from the Company, or to ask the Company to send to a third party, a copy of your personal information in electronic form that you provided to the Company in connection with the performance of your employment agreement or with your consent.
More on the right to object: You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information based solely on the Company’s legitimate interests. If you do object in these circumstances, the processing of your personal information will be stopped unless there is an overriding, compelling reason to continue the processing or the processing is necessary to establish, pursue or defend legal claims.

To submit a request please contact us via email privacy@slack.com. If there’s a reason why we can’t grant your request based on applicable law, we’ll let you know.

If you believe that your personal information has been processed in violation of applicable data protection law, you may have the right to lodge a complaint with the data protection authority where you live, where you work, or where you believe the violation occurred.

10. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. We will post the changes to this page and encourage you to review our Privacy Policy to stay informed. If we will materially change how we use, disclose or otherwise process your personal data, we will contact you before doing so and obtain your consent before using, disclosing or otherwise processing your personal data other than as described in this Policy.

11. U.S. equal employment opportunity (EEO) statement

Slack is an equal employment opportunity employer. Slack does not discriminate against any candidate or employee on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, disability, or any other consideration made unlawful by applicable federal, state, or local laws. Slack also prohibits harassment of candidates and employees based on any of these protected categories. It is also Slack’s policy to comply with all applicable federal and state laws respecting consideration of unemployment status in making hiring decisions.

Slack complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (“ADAAA”), and applicable state law and considers reasonable accommodation measures that may be necessary for qualified candidates/employees to perform the essential functions of the job. Hire may be contingent upon a post-offer medical examination, and to skill and agility tests, as appropriate for the position.

Assistance for disabled candidates: Alternative methods of applying for employment are available to individuals unable to submit an application through this Site because of a disability. Contact careers@slack-corp.com to discuss modifications.

12. Contact us

If you have any questions about this policy or would like to exercise your statutory rights you can contact privacy@slack.com.

If you are in the EU or the UK and if you can’t find the answer to your question in this policy, you can contact our Data Protection Officer at dpo@slack.com.