Slack retains personal data for as long as necessary to provide its services, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce agreements, with specific retention periods varying by data type.
This analysis describes what Slack's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This provision establishes the operational framework for data retention lifecycle management, distinguishing between Customer Data (subject to customer-directed retention controls) and Other Information (retained under Slack's discretionary criteria). The provision clarifies that retention obligations are conditioned on both contractual terms and applicable law, and that control mechanisms vary by service tier.
Your personal data may be retained by Slack indefinitely depending on the type of data and applicable legal requirements. If you want your data deleted, you need to submit an explicit deletion request, and even then some data may be retained for legal compliance purposes.
How other platforms handle this
We store information until it is no longer necessary to provide our services and WhatsApp Products, or until your account is deleted or becomes inactive, whichever comes first. This is a case-by-case determination that depends on things like the nature of the information, why it is collected and pro...
You may request deletion of your account at any time. When you request account deletion, we will delete or anonymize your personal information unless we are required to retain it by law, or unless we need to retain it for legitimate business purposes such as resolving disputes, enforcing our agreeme...
We'll retain your Personal Data for only as long as we need in order to provide our Services to you, or for other legitimate business purposes such as resolving disputes, safety and security reasons, or complying with our legal obligations. How long we retain Personal Data will depend on a number of...
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"Slack will retain Customer Data in accordance with a Customer's instructions (including to perform any applicable terms in the Customer Agreement and through Customer's use of Services functionality) and as required by applicable law. Customer may customize its retention settings and, depending on the Services plan, apply those customized settings at the Workspace level, channel level or other level. Slack may retain Other Information pertaining to you for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy and to pursue legitimate business interests, conduct audits, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.— Excerpt from Slack's Slack Privacy Policy
Variable and indefinite retention periods create GDPR compliance risk under the storage limitation principle (Article 5(1)(e)), which requires personal data to be kept for no longer than necessary. Legal teams should request Slack's retention schedule and confirm it aligns with organizational data minimisation obligations.
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This provision establishes the operational framework for data retention lifecycle management, distinguishing between Customer Data (subject to customer-directed retention controls) and Other Information (retained under Slack's discretionary criteria). The provision clarifies that retention obligations are conditioned on both contractual terms and applicable law, and that control mechanisms vary by service tier.
Your personal data may be retained by Slack indefinitely depending on the type of data and applicable legal requirements. If you want your data deleted, you need to submit an explicit deletion request, and even then some data may be retained for legal compliance purposes.
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