Does Slack allow AI companies to use exported data?
The short answer
Slack's API terms bar app developers from training language models on API data or bulk exporting messages without agreement. Those limits cover apps. The text does not say what happens when a customer exports data and gives it to a buyer. Other contracts and laws still apply.
Which Slack text applies depends on how the data gets out. Two routes matter.
What do the API terms say?
The API terms of service limit anyone who distributes an app beyond a single organization. Under "Data Usage by Third Parties," that developer may not:
- use API data to train a large language model
- bulk export Slack message and file data, except where an additional agreement allows it
- use one organization's data to directly benefit a different organization or any third party
Another section bars persistent copies, archives, indexes or long-term data stores of other organizations' API data. Hunton, a law firm, wrote about the change. It notes Salesforce can change the terms on notice.
Does that cover a buyer that connects to my workspace?
A buyer that connects through OAuth or the API is an app provider in the sense the text uses. That's my reading, because the text describes developers and their apps. A buyer that asks you to run an export yourself uses a different route.
What about my own admin export?
Slack's help page says Free and Pro workspace owners and admins can export public channels. On Business+ and Enterprise plans, owners can use tools to export all channels and conversations. That includes private channels and direct messages. Slack's guide to import and export tools gives the owner two duties. The owner must have the right employment agreements and company policies in place. The owner must also make sure every use of the export is legal.
Slack's privacy principles say customers own their customer data. They also say Slack will not use Customer Data to train generative AI models without clear opt-in consent. Neither statement covers a customer handing its own export to a third party.
What if the channels are shared with other companies?
Slack Connect exports include messages from members outside the exporting organization. Slack says external content is kept under the outside organization's settings. Nothing I read says the exporter may relicense the other company's messages. Treat shared channels as a rights question for counsel.
The rights check asks whose records these are and whether staff messages are included. The risks page covers the other limits on Slack licensing, such as contracts and employee rules.
Talk to a privacy or commercial lawyer in your state before you sign.
Vaultfish helps you run the process. We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. If you need counsel who knows this area, we can point you to one. Ask for a referral
