Slack, a popular workplace communication platform, has come under scrutiny for using customer data to train artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) models without explicit permission from users. Masu. The company's privacy policy says it analyzes customers' messages, content, and files to develop these models, and that users are automatically opted in by default.
The controversy came to light after Duckbill Group executive Corey Quinn highlighted the issue on social media. This sparked outrage among Slack users who were unaware of the company's data usage practices. Many users expressed frustration with the lack of transparency and difficulty in opting out of the AI training process.
To opt out, individual users must request their organization's Slack admin contact Slack's customer experience team via email with the workspace URL and the subject line “Slack Global Model Opt-Out Request.” This process has been criticized for placing the burden on users to protect their data, rather than requiring explicit consent from the start.
Slack has sought to clarify its position, saying machine learning models are used for platform-level features like channel and emoji recommendations and search results. The company also emphasized that customers can exclude the data used to train these non-generative ML models.
However, inconsistencies in Slack's privacy policy are causing further confusion. One section states that Slack does not have access to the underlying content when developing his AI/ML models, but his policy for training machine learning models contradicts this claim. Additionally, Slack's marketing of its premium generated AI tools implies that user data is not used for training, which can be misleading given the company's selective application of this statement. there is.
Slack's current opt-out methods are facing significant backlash, and the company may need to change its policies to provide more data transparency and user control.
The controversy came to light after Duckbill Group executive Corey Quinn highlighted the issue on social media. This sparked outrage among Slack users who were unaware of the company's data usage practices. Many users expressed frustration with the lack of transparency and difficulty in opting out of the AI training process.
To opt out, individual users must request their organization's Slack admin contact Slack's customer experience team via email with the workspace URL and the subject line “Slack Global Model Opt-Out Request.” This process has been criticized for placing the burden on users to protect their data, rather than requiring explicit consent from the start.
Slack has sought to clarify its position, saying machine learning models are used for platform-level features like channel and emoji recommendations and search results. The company also emphasized that customers can exclude the data used to train these non-generative ML models.
However, inconsistencies in Slack's privacy policy are causing further confusion. One section states that Slack does not have access to the underlying content when developing his AI/ML models, but his policy for training machine learning models contradicts this claim. Additionally, Slack's marketing of its premium generated AI tools implies that user data is not used for training, which can be misleading given the company's selective application of this statement. there is.
Slack's current opt-out methods are facing significant backlash, and the company may need to change its policies to provide more data transparency and user control.
